RALEIGH — Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson’s campaign for governor is being sued by a polling group over an unpaid invoice.
Vox Insights, a polling data group based in Wyoming, is the plaintiff and is being represented by Michael Best & Friedrich LLP, located in Raleigh.
The lawsuit was filed Oct. 18 in Stanly County and alleges Vox Insights entered into a contract for polling work with the Friends for Mark Robinson (FOMR) campaign on Sept. 13.
The bill was $114,000 with a 30-day payment window and the suit says FOMR has “failed or otherwise refused to pay the invoice.”
The lawsuit says Vox Insights filed its complaint because they believe the campaign won’t be able to pay its bills after Election Day and a judge’s order is needed to intervene.
Vox is also seeking “in excess of $25,000” in damages plus attorney fees and requests a jury trial.
Courthouse News first broke the story about the lawsuit on the social media platform X.
Robinson’s campaign says it doesn’t owe Vox Insights any money.
“This lawsuit is completely baseless,” a Robinson campaign spokesperson said in a statement to North State Journal. “The campaign has resolved all invoices for all previous work from this company and does not owe them one penny.
“The campaign has not seen any work product from this company on this so-called project, and the work they are alleging was agreed to by a consultant — without Lt. Gov. Robinson’s knowledge or consent — that is no longer with the campaign and had no authority to authorize it. This matter is clearly being pushed by political grifters that are just trying to extort more money from the campaign, and we’re confident that we’ll be successful in court and these bad actors will be exposed.”
The former staffer mentioned by the campaign spokesperson and who is also named in the lawsuit as the person who executed the contract on behalf of the campaign is Conrad Pogorzelski III.
Pogorzelski resigned his position with FOMR following a Sept. 14 CNN report claiming Robinson had made controversial remarks on a pornographic website. Robinson denied the allegations and has filed a $50 million defamation lawsuit against CNN and former adult video store employee Louis Money. The lawsuit was amended to “in excess of $25 million” in order to comply with state civil suit laws.
According to 2024 second-quarter expenditures by FOMR, Pogorzelski’s consulting firm, Conservative Connections, was paid just over $450,000. The FOMR campaign’s 2023 year-end report for the campaign showed more than $1.2 million paid to Pogorzelski’s consulting firm.
Between 2019’s year-end report and the 2024 second-quarter report, Pogorzelski’s Conservative Connections has been paid nearly $3.3 million.
In its lawsuit, Vox Insights cites its parent company as “IFA Holdings, LLC d/b/a Cygnal.”
Vox Insights has no discernable internet footprint and has been anonymously registered as a company in Wyoming by a law firm.
Wyoming secretary of state records show the company was established on Aug. 20, 2024, by Cloud Peak Law LLP, with Andrew Pierce named as the “organizer” on the initial filing document.
The Sheridan, Wyoming, address of 1309 Coffeen Avenue listed in the Vox Insights corporate filing is the same as the Cloud Peak Law Group, an estate and business formations law firm, that lists both Andrew and Mark Pierce as points of contact.
The contact information associated with Pierce in the Vox filing points to a company called “Wyoming LLC Attorney.” Listed alongside Andrew Pierce on the Wyoming LLC Attorney website is Mark Pierce.
