Dan Price: CEO who increased minimum wage to $70,000 denies he 'beat and waterboarded' his ex-wife

Price's ex-wife Kristie Colón made the allegations in a TEDx talk that will be published online on December 7

CEO Dan Price has pledged to pay all his workers at least $70,000 (YouTube)

Dan Price, the credit card CEO who made headlines for slashing his salary and raising the minimum wage for employees to $70,000, has denied allegations that he beat and waterboarded his ex-wife in an article published by Bloomberg.

According to the report published in Bloomberg Businessweek, Price's ex-wife Kristie Colón made the allegations in a TEDx talk that will be published online on December 7.

On October 28, Colón spoke at the University of Kentucky about the power to overcome trauma. She did not name Price, but read from a journal entry she said she wrote in 2006 about her then-husband (Price and Colón were married at this time).

"He got mad at me for ignoring him and grabbed me and shook me again,” she read.

“He also threw me to the ground and got on top of me. He started punching me in the stomach and slapped me across the face. I was shaking so bad.”

Later in the talk, Colón apparently recalled once locking herself in a car, claiming she was “afraid he was going to body-slam me into the ground again or waterboard me in our upstairs bathroom like he had done before.”

The Bloomberg reporter read these quotes to Price, who at first said he didn't want to comment on them unti, he had seen evidence of the allegations. He later called the reporter to say: "The events that you described never happened."

Price denied the allegations in a statement that he asked to be printed in full: "We’ve been floored at the attention our story has gotten over the past year, and inspired by the millions all around the globe who have engaged and shared their stories with us. Unfortunately, people in the public eye are subject to speculation and criticism. Sometimes it’s fair, other times it isn’t. The recent story in BusinessWeek contained reckless accusations and baseless speculations that are unequivocally false.

"As a company, we’ve faced many challenges in our history. Each time we’ve banded together, worked hard and focused on our mission to help our community businesses, we have eventually emerged stronger. This has been a truly memorable year in many ways. We’re looking forward to working harder than ever in pursuit of our mission."

Bloomberg Businessweek said it stands by its reporting.