It seems that the downtime the quarantine has provided has been detrimental to some of us. The latest CEO-caught-on-tape, Jeffrey Previte of EBI Consulting, was caught on security camera footage savagely abusing his four-month-old puppy at his Santa Monica, CA luxury condominium. While the footage of the incident is just leaked and is getting national attention, the events of the video actually took place on August 22nd.
The security cameras at the Seychelle Condominiums caught the abhorrent abuse on film and the building’s concierge—after a confrontation with Previte—decided to expose the CEO’s true colors by sharing the footage with The Daily Mail.
The unnamed concierge broke down the series of events for the Daily Mail, saying, “I heard the dog screaming and when I looked on the camera, I saw [Previte] beating the dog. He was very angry. He was choking and slapping the dog, he even slammed the poor dog against the wall.” The concierge then contacted Previte to discuss the incident and inform him that he would be sending a report to building management. Previte then “became irate… and then he hung up on me. He apologized the next day, but I didn’t think it was a sincere apology.”
After filing the report, the concierge was unhappy with how his manager handled the situation. The concierge believed that the manager did not take the event seriously, telling the Daily Mail that, “My boss laughed in my face. I took the next day off work. I just felt that they should have called the police at least.” It was then that he decided to reach out to the press, share the footage and expose Previte. The security footage is embedded below should you decide to witness the abuse yourself, but be warned, the video is graphic and upsetting.
The building’s management condemned Previte’s behavior and outlined the actions they are taking in a statement to The Daily Mail, “The apparent conduct of the unit owner was abhorrent and completely unacceptable.
“Building management stands behind our employee and we took swift action including contacting animal control and directing the resident to cease all contact with our employee. We continue to evaluate other measures that can be taken with our counsel.”
How Have the Previte’s Responded?
Naturally, Previte himself does not believe that he has done anything wrong. In his statement defending himself to The Daily Mail, Previte went so far as to accuse the concierge of extorting him, “I think this is very unfortunate that this has come across your desk.
“I don’t even know exactly what to say but I will say this: [The concierge] called me the evening of this interaction with my dog and that was at nine o’clock at night and he attempted to extort money from me so that he wouldn’t report it to the building. There’s nothing illegal about what I did – I said if you need to tell the building, tell the building. The building manager took it very seriously. I find it very unfortunate that we are even talking about this.”
Previte’s TMZ reached out to Previte’s father, Frank Previte—EBI Consulting’s founder and Executive Chairman—to find out the company’s stance on the incident. Frank Previte said that he “finds the video troubling” and has spoken to his son while the company has launched an investigation which could lead to disciplinary action.
Who is Jeffrey Previte?
Should this incident lead to Previte’s removal from his position of CEO, then his tenure would be incredibly short-lived has he was just earned the title last week. EBI Consulting’s press release announcing his appointment to CEO has been removed from the environmental risk and compliance management consultancy firm’s website.
Previte is reportedly an avid hunter. He took the opportunity to morbidly relish in his pastime in a 2011 Facebook post (photo above) in which he poses next to a fresh kill, jokingly captioning the picture with “I didn’t mean to kill Bambi’s mother.” The callousness of that tasteless joke does little to offer Previte the benefit of the doubt in this incident with his pet.
How this incident will affect Previte, in the long run, is yet to be seen; however, the significant backlash he is already facing does not bode well for him, especially because those incensed by the disgusting video made sure to reach out to the Santa Monica Police Department. SMPD attempted to investigate the incident on September 4th, but was unable to locate Previte. Since then, they are working with the district attorney to bring about charges of Malicious Mischief Against an Animal/Animal Cruelty.
