Hasta La Creative!

During yesterday’s sentencing hearing for convicted felon Bill Grizack in North Carolina, the president/partner of The Variable read a statement calling him a “con man…addicted to lying,” contradicting the defense team’s attempts to portray him as a respectable family man who had simply taken a wrong turn in a legitimate attempt to further his own career.

Like the state prosecutor, Keith Vest urged the judge in the case to give Grizack a longer sentence. After we left the courtroom, Vest promised to provide an official statement on behalf of the agency, and he did so yesterday evening.

That statement in full:

As mentioned this morning, here is a follow-up statement to what was shared in the courtroom:

Bill Grizack caused employees to lose their jobs; he caused unimaginable emotional turmoil and he almost destroyed a company whose only fault was an instinct to trust.

For the past three years, we have worked closely with the authorities so that no other company falls victim to Grizack’s duplicity. Since 2013, The Variable has thrived – more than quadrupling agency revenues, tripling the size of our staff and we are currently a reigning Ad Age Southeast Small Agency of the Year. These accomplishments are a testament to the talent and tenacity of our team.

We are happy to officially put this matter to rest and to continue the jobs we love with our focus on the future.

Vest’s release comes after the judge in the case said, “There is just a small amount of gullibility and greed on the part of the victims.”

As noted yesterday, spokespeople for McKinney and Egg Strategy–two of the other agencies that were defrauded by Grizack–have declined to comment on the case. However, according to Grizack’s defense attorney Bernard Desrosiers, McKinney CEO Brad Brinegar said words to the effect of, “My client [meaning Grizack] placed a bet, and it went badly.” Desrosier added, “[Bill] wanted to please people and thought that if he continued working it would pay off.”

We are not yet done reporting on Grizack, and we have already received a fair amount of additional information. Multiple parties have told us that the former executive strategist had been living in the Boulder, Colorado area with his family and “looking pretty healthy” while awaiting sentencing. (When he pled guilty in March, he listed mailing addresses in both Lafayette, CO and West Hollywood, CA).

Another source claims to have recently overheard Grizack tell an unnamed party that he “currently works in four states,” though that statement would no longer be accurate as he has now begun to serve his sentence of 57 to 81 months in the North Carolina prison system.