Bob Hartheimer, CEO of Tennessee’s Evolve Bank & Trust, was fired after U.S. law enforcement officials caught him propositioning a law enforcement officer posing as a 15-year-old boy on gay dating app Grindr.

On Oct. 19, an employee of the Federal Bureau of Investigation logged onto Grindr while pretending to be a teen boy, and a user called “Tomm” wrote a message to that person saying, “Hey any chance u would hu with an older and chill guy,” according to an affidavit from a special agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation that was unsealed on Tuesday.

The two discussed getting together in person later in the week, according to the affidavit. On Snapchat, they talked about the sex acts they might perform. “Tomm” asked for a photo of the “boy” without shorts on, and he also sent the undercover agent a picture of himself naked. The FBI was able to obtain an IP address for “Tomm” from Snapchat, as well as an address from Comcast, the affidavit showed.

Hartheimer was arrested in Memphis on Oct. 23 for attempted production of child pornography and transfer of obscene material to a minor, according to a warrant.

An Evolve spokesperson and Blake Ballin, a lawyer representing Hartheimer, told CNBC on Saturday that Evolve has fired the CEO.

“Bob’s family is aware of the charges,” Ballin wrote in an email. “His family loves and supports him and requests privacy during this difficult period in their lives. We have no further comment at this time.”

The Wall Street Journal reported on Hartheimer’s firing from Evolve Bank on Friday.

Evolve said its finance chief, Mark Mosteller, and its general counsel, Joelle Weltzin, will be in charge of the bank’s operations, as they were before the bank hired Hartheimer in August.

“We are in close contact with the U.S. Attorney’s office and have been assured that this is a personal matter and does not relate to the Bank or its operations in any way,” the spokesperson wrote in an email.

Last year, Evolve was caught up in the bankruptcy of financial technology startup Synapse, which cut off access to a system for handling transactions and account details. Fintech apps such as Yotta worked with Evolve and other banks, with Synapse acting as a middleman.

Synapse’s method of keeping app users’ money in various banks, including Evolve, created accounting problems, and up to $96 million in deposits went missing. Thousands of Americans lost money, CNBC reported.

In 2024, Evolve also suffered a cyberattack, during which hackers obtained customer information and demanded a ransom. The bank said it did not pay any ransom and the data was eventually posted online.

“This is a structural change, demonstrating our continued commitment to doing the hard work to earn back the trust of our customers, employees, regulators, and investors,” Evolve said in an August statement announcing the selection of Hartheimer to replace CEO Scott Stafford, who retired after joining in 2004.

The bank touted Hartheimer’s experience as director of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation’s Division of Resolutions, as well as his years as a regulatory consultant for fintech companies.

“Over the past four decades, I’ve led, turned around, and advised institutions across the financial landscape,” Hartheimer wrote on his LinkedIn profile. 

The 100-year-old bank reported net losses for each of the first three quarters of 2025 after being profitable since 2003, according to data on file with the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council.

— CNBC’s Dan Mangan and Hugh Son contributed reporting.

Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal, which owns CNBC. Versant would become the new parent company of CNBC upon Comcast’s planned spinoff of Versant.

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Welcome to Today in Books, our daily round-up of literary headlines at the intersection of politics, culture, media, and more.

Director of Eisenhower Library in Kansas Fired After Refusing to Give Trump a Sword

The Eisenhower Library in Abilene, Kansas is terrific (I think probably the best of the half-dozen or so Presidential Libraries I have visited). And one of the reasons it is so terrific is that Eisenhower’s career outside of the Presidency was arguably more interesting and important than his time in the White House: Supreme Commander of Allied Forces is the coolest title anyone has ever had. So you might forgive the Eisenhower library from pulling artifacts from its collection to give away to foreign leaders. But you also might not apparently.

Crying on Camera

I think the first time I realized the BookTok was a different animal is when I saw a video with millions of views of someone openly sobbing while reading the end of a book (I think it was A Little Life, but cannot be sure). I don’t what you expect to hear folks say who set up their camera as they are reading the last part of a book to catch the video if they start crying other than this is real. But I also know that a bunch of creators know that #booksthatmademesob videos can get a ton of views–and that those views can come with cash money from creator programs (and guest spots on national television). I am sort of in the point with “genuine reaction” videos as I am with short videos on social media: scroller beware.

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Opening Track on Taylor Swift’s New Album is one for the Bard-heads

Look, I don’t know that Taylor Swift’s reference to Ophelia on “The Fate of Ophelia” is particular original or interesting. The song is about being in love with somebody, so avoids Ophelia’s fate, here figured as dying out of scorned affection. Is this what actually happens to Ophelia? Maybe (I am of the camp that her father’s sudden death is more responsible than Hamlet’s antic disposition). Am I just happy that Shakespeare references are coming out of the mouth of the biggest celebrity in the world? ““As merry as the day is long.”

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Chief People Officer Kristin Cabot is on leave, but hasn’t been publicly given the boot over liability concerns, legal experts said — and it’s not so easy to dump employees just because of “ugly” headlines.

Cabot’s fate at the New York-based data science company is still murky — though employment lawyers also threw cold water on any possible sexual harassment case or similar claims.

Former Astronomer CEO Andy Byron was caught dancing with the company’s Chief People Officer Kristin Cabot on camera at a Coldplay concert at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass. last week. instaagraace/TikTok

“In a real-world big company, you can’t just fire someone because the headlines are ugly,” said attorney Nicole Brenecki.

“There are likely contracts, internal investigations, and legal issues involved.

“If HR greenlit what happened with Coldplay, and there is a supporting paper trail, heads will likely roll. It just might take a few more days before the axe drops.”

Cabot, who took the job in November 2024 became one half of a viral public scandal when she and Byron were called out by Coldplay frontman Chris Martin on the jumbotron at the show at Gillette Stadium outside Boston.

Astronomer later publicly confirmed an investigation into the incident is underway.

Cabot was placed on leave by the company after the video of the two executives went viral. Maud Cabot/Facebook

Both Byron and Cabot appear to be married to other people, according to social media posts — adding a layer to the scandal. 

An email to Astronomer seeking comment on Cabot’s job status was not returned Monday, though the new interim CEO weighed in on the scandal online.

Here is the latest on the CEO caught cheating on a Coldplay concert jumbotron

Pete DeJoy, the company’s co-founder, said in a LinkedIn post the immense attention “has been unusual and surreal for Astronomer workers.

“While I would never have wished for it to happen like this, Astronomer is now a household name,” DeJoy said.

Byron resigned days after the footage came out. LinkedIn/Andy Byron

“The events of the past few days have received a level of media attention that few companies – let alone startups in our small corner of the data and AI world – ever encounter,” he added.

Another employment attorney, William Cafaro, suggested that booting Cabot would be easy, but he suspects the company and her might be wrangling over an exit deal.

“Like if you were to look for a picture of ’cause’ [for firing] in the dictionary, it would show a picture of the head of HR having a public affair with the CEO of the company,” he told The Post.

He added that it’s “difficult to conceive” how she could continue in her current role.

Attorney Douglas Wigdor theorized there could be more details about the relationship that the public isn’t privy to. He said that could be a factor in why Cabot has not publicly left the company.

Additionally, the results of the internal probe could determine what the company ultimately does with Cabot, Wigdor added.

“Maybe there’s more to the story from her,” the founding partner of Wigdor LLP said. “That’s definitely possible about how it came to be that they’re at this concert and they’re embracing. It’s a short video so it’s hard to know what exactly is going on.”

Legal experts also doubted she could bring forward a claim of sexual harassment, even though Byron was her superior.

“Unless she was pressured into the relationship because of a power imbalance, there’s not much of a case,” Brenecki said.

The Post’s cover on the infamous Coldplay concert video.

“If it was consensual… a sexual harassment suit would be a stretch. In fact, a jury might laugh it out of court. Being embarrassed on a jumbotron isn’t the same as being harassed at work.”

Wigdor echoed that sentiment – though he again cautioned it was based on limited information.

“She’d have to demonstrate their relationship was unwanted and I think based off what I’ve seen would be difficult,” he said.

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Sewell Chan, the Columbia Journalism Review executive editor, was fired from the publication on Thursday after less than a year in the role, following staff complaints about his behavior, he confirmed Friday.

Jelani Cobb, the dean of the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism, told staff members in an email on Friday that Mr. Chan was “no longer with” CJR, a publication covering the media industry that the school has published since 1961.

“We are most grateful to the CJR staff for their resilience and dedication,” Mr. Cobb said in the email, which was viewed by The New York Times.

Mr. Chan, a well-known figure in journalism circles, started in the top role in September, after the job was vacant for almost a year. He was a former editor in chief of The Texas Tribune and held senior roles at The Los Angeles Times and The New York Times, as well as a number of board positions.

In a lengthy statement on Friday afternoon, Mr. Chan described his firing as “hasty, ill considered and quite frankly baffling.” He said he had learned this week of several staff complaints about his behavior and had offered to meet with the employees.

He acknowledged three “pointed interactions” in recent weeks with colleagues, but described them as “normal workplace interactions.”

“This is the same approach I took in leading The Texas Tribune and the Los Angeles Times editorial board and as an editor and reporter at The New York Times,” he said. “The norms at Columbia are apparently very different.”

Mr. Cobb declined to comment further when contacted by The Times because “it’s a personnel matter.”

In a separate email to CJR board members on Friday, Mr. Cobb and the board chair, Rebecca Blumenstein, president of editorial at NBC News, said Mr. Chan’s departure was “effective immediately.” The news shocked some members of the board, according to two people familiar with the matter. The board was preparing to convene for a regular meeting next week, which is still scheduled to take place, the people said.

Mr. Chan’s departure comes at an inopportune time for CJR. The magazine, which has been running under tight budgetary constraints, was beginning a fund-raising campaign, two people familiar with it said. Now, the magazine is without a permanent editor to spearhead that effort.

On Friday, Ravi Somaiya, a former editor at CJR, wrote a first-person essay in the Breaker Media newsletter describing a tense workplace relationship with Mr. Chan. Mr. Somaiya said he had messaged Mr. Chan about what he described as “hostility” to staff members.

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Microsoft didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment Monday.

The protests began Friday when Microsoft software engineer Ibtihal Aboussad walked up to a stage where an executive was announcing new product features and a long-term vision for Microsoft’s AI ambitions.

Microsoft software engineer Ibtihal Aboussad interrupted the company’s 50th anniversary celebration to protest its work supplying artificial intelligence technology to the Israeli military. She and another employee were fired. AP

“You claim that you care about using AI for good but Microsoft sells AI weapons to the Israeli military,” Aboussad shouted at Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman. “Fifty-thousand people have died and Microsoft powers this genocide in our region.”

The protest forced Suleyman to pause his talk, which was livestreamed from Microsoft’s campus in Redmond, Washington. Among the participants at the 50th anniversary of Microsoft’s founding were co-founder Bill Gates and former CEO Steve Ballmer.

“Thank you for your protest, I hear you,” Suleyman said. Aboussad continued, shouting that Suleyman and “all of Microsoft” had blood on their hands. She also threw onto the stage a keffiyeh scarf, which has become a symbol of support for Palestinian people, before being escorted out of the event.

A second protester, Microsoft employee Vaniya Agrawal, interrupted a later part of the event.

Aboussad was invited on Monday to a video call with a human resources representative at which she was told she was being terminated immediately. Agrawal was notified over email, according to the advocacy group No Azure for Apartheid, which has protested the sale of Microsoft’s Azure cloud computing platform to Israel.

Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman (right) with CEO Satya Nadella on Friday. AP

An investigation by The Associated Press revealed earlier this year that AI models from Microsoft and OpenAI had been used as part of an Israeli military program to select bombing targets during the recent wars in Gaza and Lebanon. The story also contained details of an errant Israeli airstrike in 2023 that struck a vehicle carrying members of a Lebanese family, killing three young girls and their grandmother.

In February, five Microsoft employees were ejected from a meeting with CEO Satya Nadella for protesting the contracts.

“We provide many avenues for all voices to be heard,” said a statement from the company Friday. “Importantly, we ask that this be done in a way that does not cause a business disruption. If that happens, we ask participants to relocate. We are committed to ensuring our business practices uphold the highest standards.”

Microsoft had declined to say Friday whether it was taking further action. Aboussad told the AP she lost access to her work accounts shortly after the protest and had not been able to log back in.

Among the participants at the 50th anniversary of Microsoft’s founding were co-founder Bill Gates and former CEO Steve Ballmer. AP

Dozens of Google workers were fired last year after internal protests surrounding a contract that the technology company has with the Israeli government. Employee sit-ins at Google offices in New York and Sunnyvale, California were targeting a $1.2 billion deal known as Project Nimbus providing AI technology to the Israeli government.

The Google workers later filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board in an attempt to get their jobs back.

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