A banking alternative for conservatives that offered checking and savings accounts in addition to credit cards is already shutting down, reports from sources including The Wall Street Journal have indicated.
A Texas news website identified Candace Owens, the far-right commentator, as a co-founder at the failing firm, which she promoted on social media with predictably over-the-top language in the weeks before it lost its footing. Her precise role in running the operation isn’t immediately clear. “We are at the beginning of the conservative economy,” she said in early October. “You guys will all be hearing about GLORIFI soon. It will overtake Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Chase & #Paypal very quickly. Please remember you heard about it on my Twitter, first.” An article published earlier this week from the Journal said the company — known as GloriFi — already laid off most of its workforce. Cathy Landtroop, who has done marketing and communications for the company, blamed a long list of ills in a message to employees reported on in the Journal.
She said that “financial challenges related to startup mistakes, the failing economy, reputational attacks, and multiple negative stories took their toll,” and now it’s through, following the app rolling out in September — not long ago! A large Dallas residence of founder Toby Neugebauer was apparently the primary workspace for GloriFi. In July, before the app was available to users, a deal involving the merger of GloriFi and a special purpose acquisition company — sometimes more colloquially known as a blank-check company — was announced, necessitating that GloriFi pulled through with an additional $60 million.
It doesn’t seem as though GloriFi was able to reach that level of additional financial support after already raising some $50 million, including from billionaire Ken Griffin — one of the GOP-aligned mega-donors who recent reports have suggested is more interested in supporting Ron DeSantis in the next GOP presidential primary contest than Donald Trump. Trump has already announced a candidacy, but DeSantis — who hasn’t done so — has been widely floated as a possible challenger, with polls, fundraising totals, and election results for himself and candidates with which he was aligned suggesting he has a good chance. “He did a lot of things really well and missed the mark on some important areas,” Griffin said of Trump. “And for a litany of reasons, I think it’s time to move on to the next generation.” Griffin recently supported DeSantis in his successful bid for re-election as the governor of Florida.
GloriFi failed to secure the funding necessary for moving through to the first quarter of next year, and this week, Owens didn’t immediately comment on the app imploding. With Alex Jones also facing a Texas judge deciding to uphold tens of millions of dollars worth of financial damages that were imposed because of lies he told about the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting and a primary company associated with him currently the subject of highly contested bankruptcy proceedings, it’s not a superbly great time to be in business and aligned with the far-right.
Image: Gage Skidmore/ Creative Commons
