Former Ranger Regiment commander sues San Francisco info warfare contractor for alleged fraud, age discrimination, and unpaid wages
Former 75th Ranger Regiment commander Christopher S. Vanek sued his former information warfare employer, Premise Data, and is naming their special operations contracts in public court documents.
“Premise and [its holding company] each failed to maintain adequate business records, minutes or corporate records in a conspiracy to defraud their customers and employees, including Plaintiff,” states a previously unreported and ongoing lawsuit filed by former 75th Ranger Regiment commander Christopher S. Vanek against his former employer on May 15 in the County of San Francisco. Several previously undisclosed codenames of special operations and intelligence contracts are revealed in the filing as part of Vanek arguing that age discrimination led to his missed bonus payments.
Vanek, who was previously reprimanded for allegedly contributing to an attitude of hard partying in his former unit, claims to have been defrauded out of $350,000 in incentive payments — on top of his $350,000 base salary — from the gig-work data collection firm Premise Data and its recent CEO, Matt McNabb. The lawsuit was triggered by reporting from this publication in September 2023 which exposed the later-dismissed felony domestic violence arrest of Premise’s then-CEO Maury Blackman, who had managed the company’s relationship with Vanek. Blackman was ousted by the company on December 8, 2023, and Vanek’s access to his work accounts was cut off four days later, according to his suit.
“On December 8, 2023, Mr. Blackman informed Plaintiff that he had stepped down from his position as CEO,” stated the complaint, before noting that, “On December 12, 2023, while Plaintiff was working for Premise, using Premise’s Company-supplied computer, Plaintiff’s access to the Company systems and other resources was terminated.”
The abrupt December 2023 termination of the former Ranger Regiment commander was his second departure from the company, following what the lawsuit described as an ‘amicable’ exit from his previous role as senior vice president of public sector in December 2021. Mr. Vanek’s employer between his first exit and his recruitment by Blackman to return to rejuvenate Premise’s government contracts on May 1, 2023 is left unnamed, but Vanek’s LinkedIn profile discloses his role during that period as chief operating officer of the Austin-based healthcare services company Curative. Vanek’s LinkedIn page has wiped all references to Premise and currently describes him as a partner at the Austin-based, and Curative-affiliated, defense contractor Gothams.
Vanek’s lawsuit against Premise comes on top of a trio of lawsuits involving the company’s previously secret acquisition of the Texas-based information warfare contractor Madison Springfield Incorporated (MSI) in mid-2022, including a still-sealed False Claims Act suit. Both Premise and MSI were sold to the Alexandria-based special operations contractor Culmen International last month, with the press releases separated by thirteen days in a failed attempt to preserve the confidentiality of Premise’s contentious acquisition of MSI.
The May 15 filing details previously unreported codenames of tens of millions of dollars in military contracts which Vanek allegedly landed for Premise. His winnings for the company were said to include: a $3.3 million Information Warfare Task Force contract named YUKON ALPHA, a $615,000 contract with U.S. Special Operations Command named WEEDON, a $1.69 million contract with U.S. Central Command named GIGLAMESH, a $320,000 contract with the XVIII Airborne Corps named BADLANDS ALPHA, a renegotiation of an unnamed “lucrative” contract with U.S. Army Pacific, and a $4 million contract with “a U.S. DoD [Department of Defense] classified partner in New Mexico.”
This publication has been out for comment with U.S. Army Pacific since July 14 regarding the silent deletion from public record of a $1.39 billion ceiling “Theater Army Campaign Support (TACS)” contract signed with the McLean-based management consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton on June 4, 2024 with the unique procurement identifier of 47QFCA24F0027. A now-deleted disclosure on USASpending.gov detailed a $424,000 subaward to Premise on October 31, 2024 for “rapid polling, audience analysis, surveys and data collection across a global crowdsourced network,” suggesting that the subaward is the same “lucrative” Army Pacific renegotiation referenced by Vanek.
A spokesperson for the U.S. Office of the Secretary of Defense previously told All-Source Intelligence that Federal Acquisition Regulation clauses 4.606(c-d) were justification for the Pentagon’s previous deletion of the public record of a $142 million contract with Fairfax-based intelligence contractor ECS Federal in relation to Project Maven.
According to Vanek’s suit against Premise, “His professional reputation has been significantly damaged as a consequence of Premise’s unprofessional and abrupt termination of his employment, as demonstrated by both former employees and retired General Officers from the U.S. Army verbally communicating their disappointment that Plaintiff was no longer with the Company.”
The former Ranger Regiment commander further alleged that Premise was “clearly notified of Plaintiff’s protected status as being over 40 years old” and that the company’s hiring of “several highly compensated, younger executives, including Steve Honeywell” was evidence of age discrimination.
The retired U.S. Army Colonel also claimed that his dismissal by Premise Data caused him “to suffer extreme anguish, humiliation, emotional distress, worry, sleeplessness, nervousness, tension, severe physical pain and distress, headaches, stomach pain, and physical trauma.”
Premise Data filed a dismissive response to Vanek’s allegations on August 12, the same day that Culmen International announced the company’s acquisition. “Defendants deny, generally and specifically, each and every material allegation in the Complaint and the whole thereof,” wrote Premise’s lawyers.