Govini founder arrested on child solicitation charges
Eric Gillespie, founder and chair of Govini, faces four felony counts connected to allegations he solicited an underage girl for sex. Pennsylvania Attorney General
By
Nick Wakeman
The arrest of Eric Gillespie comes a month after the company secured a Bain Capital investment to expand its artificial intelligence tools to a wider landscape.
A leader of a company gathering steam as a data and artificial intelligence provider to the Defense Department has been arrested for allegedly soliciting an underage girl for sex.
Eric T. Gillespie, the founder and chairman of Govini, has been charged as part of a sting operation by the Pennsylvania attorney general’s office and the Lebanon County, Pennsylvania district attorney’s office.
A law enforcement agent with the attorney general’s office posing as a preteen girl allegedly connected with Gillespie in an online chat. Gillespie then attempted to arrange a meeting with the girl, according to the attorney general's office.
Gillespie was charged on Monday with four felony counts and is being held without bail in a Lebanon County jail.
The charges come as the company has built out its defense business and attracted new private equity investment.
On Monday, the day Gillespie was charged, the company placed him on administrative leave. But today, the Govini board fired Gillespie from his chairman position and removed him from the board. He no longer holds any position with the company.
"Mr. Gillespie stepped down from the role of CEO almost a decade ago and had no access to classified information," the company said in a statement. "Govini is an organization that has been built by over 250 people who share a profound commitment to America’s national security, including veterans, reservists, and people who have dedicated their lives to causes greater than themselves. The actions of one depraved individual should not in any way diminish the hard work of the broader team and their commitment to the security of the United States of America.”
Gillespie founded the company in 2011 as a data provider helping government contractors track contract awards and upcoming procurements. But over time, it has transitioned into a software provider for government agencies with tools to help them manage their acquisition processes.
The company touts $100 million in annual revenue and attracted a $150 million investment from Bain Capital, which was announced in October. That money is earmarked for investment in Govini’s offerings such as its Ark AI application and the hiring of more tech practitioners.
“This investment validates not just the current position achieved by our incredibly talented team, but also our long-term goal of fundamentally rewiring how defense and national security communities make decisions with AI and data,” Gillespie said of the Bain investment at the time.