THE BATTLE FOR WHITE SUPREMACY: COMPASS MARKETING HITS ANOTHER DEAD END IN ANNE ARUNDEL CIRCUIT COURT; APPEAL POSSIBLE

THE BATTLE FOR WHITE SUPREMACY: COMPASS MARKETING HITS ANOTHER DEAD END IN
ANNE ARUNDEL CIRCUIT COURT

BY KEN ROSSIGNOL
THE CHESAPEAKE TODAY

COURT NEWS: The years-long litigation between an Annapolis Marketing firm and a string of defendants has ended, subject to appeal, with the ruling of an Anne Arundel Circuit Court Judge on August 25, 2025.
The long and intertwined saga, which first began in the Baltimore District Federal Court, swung down to the Richmond Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and then back to Annapolis, screeched to a halt with more trickery, deceit, and intrigue as the expert witness for Compass was suddenly compromised, the attorney for Compass Joyce Smithey, suddenly withdrew from the case due to an undisclosed conflict, and the public affairs officer for Annapolis City Police was found to have illegally released documents in their investigation into an alleged kidnapping plot to one of the defendants. Annapolis Police Officer Miquel Dennis was relieved of his position after an internal investigation and is now the subject of a State Prosecutor’s investigation. Dennis was a colleague of Mike White when both were members of the Maryland State Police.
Compass Marketing CEO John White has yet to respond to the question as to whether he will take an appeal of Judge Thompson’s ruling to the Maryland Appellate Court. Judge Michael White has not responded with his reaction to this development. At such time as these parties reply, this article will be updated.
The lead attorney for much of the Compass Marketing litigation, Stephen B. Stern, of the Annapolis firm of Kagan, Stern, Marinello & Beard, LLC, was requested to provide a comment on the status of the case.
Judge Robert J. Thompson ruled in favor of the defendants in the state court case filed by Compass Marketing, owned by John D. White, against his two brothers, both of whom were public officials in St. Mary’s County when the litigation first began in 2021.
The majority owner of Compass, John D. White, claimed, first in a federal lawsuit filed in the District of Maryland and later appealed to the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals when District Court Judge George Russell ruled against Compass, that his brothers, a former top aide to Governor Robert Ehrlich, James C. Chip DiPaula and former employees formed a new company to compete with Compass using stolen trade secrets owned by Compass Marketing. Compass was represented by a fleet of attorneys led by former Deputy Attorney General of the United States Rod Rosenstein. The Appeal to the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals was denied, and new litigation was undertaken in the state court.
This month, Judge Thompson issued the following orders:
ORDERED, that final judgment is hereby entered in favor of Defendant Daniel White on all counts asserted against him by Compass Marketing, Inc. ORDERED, that this Order shall be entered and recorded on the docket.
ORDERED: 1. That final judgment is hereby entered in favor of Defendant Flywheel Digital LLC on all counts asserted against it by Plaintiff Compass Marketing, Inc.; 2. That final judgment is hereby entered in favor of Defendant James Columbus DiPaula, Jr., on all counts asserted against him by Plaintiff Compass Marketing, Inc.
In an earlier ruling on August 12, 2025, Judge Thompson dismissed the litigation against the big money parties in the case.
“ Amended Dismissal With Prejudice for Flywheel Digital, LLC, James Columbus DiPaula, Jr., Patrick Miller, Alexander McCord, Ascential PLC, Informa PLC, and Omnicom Group, Inc.”
The heart of the litigation was that John White, the majority owner of Compass Marketing and the CEO, discovered that his brothers, Dan White, then Deputy State’s Attorney for St. Mary’s County and Micheal White, Chief Judge of the St. Mary’s Orphans Court, had allegedly stolen funds from the company, set up a bogus bank account for the company with the home address of Michael White for the bank account and put their family members on the payroll as ghost employees.

Continued below.

A novel use of the IRS to allegedly launder money was another intriguing development in the saga. Michael White’s son, Maryland State Police Lt. George White, was hired by Compass to be the IT director for the firm. When George White filed a defamation suit against Compass Marketing Security Director Ronald Bateman, Anne Arundel County Circuit Court Judge Elizabeth Morris ruled against George White and cited evidence that George White had defrauded the taxpayers of Maryland by double-dipping, charging the State Police for time he was working for Compass. George White had complained that the negative publicity of the lawsuit caused him to be transferred from his cushy job as chief of legislative protection at the Statehouse to the armpit of the state police, commanding the Forestville Barrack.
A Garage Poker game attended by various lawyers and law enforcement officers in a garage owned by George and Michael White resulted in discipline against two ranking members of the St. Mary’s Sheriff’s Department, with one of them retiring. In addition, the poker game business filed for Payroll Protection funds from the United States during Covid-19, and a large sum was forgiven when in fact the only employees of the business were George and Michael White.
Efforts to diminish the importance of the case involving a Judge, a prosecutor, and a state police commander as simply being a feud between brothers in a family business soon began to be overshadowed by the international powerhouse financial firm that bought Flywheel Digital, which was formed by DiPaula and former Compass employees for $400 million, by the United Kingdom advertising giant Ascential PLC. Ascential was swallowed up by Omnicom Group, Inc., an even bigger whale, and soon Compass added the firm to its list of defendants.
Judge Robert Thompson was appointed to the bench by Governor Larry Hogan in 2018.
Compass Marketing was founded by John White, who holds degrees in both accounting and marketing, when he launched a vision to organize retail shelf space and create attractive small racks for his client, Chapstick. He soon expanded his firm to include major manufacturers and retailers, including Maryland-based McCormick Spices and national retailers Anheuser-Busch and Walmart.
When Norwegian Cruise Lines launched its newest luxury liner, the Norwegian Getaway, in 2014, the ship was sent to New York as a special Bud Light Hotel, which John White had wrapped in the beer company’s branding for the Super Bowl. When the hotel special for the Super Bowl was completed and the cruise ship was planning to travel to Miami for its maiden voyage, White arranged for his entire staff to enjoy the journey from New York to Miami as a reward for their hard work.
The Complaint stated the following: “Compass is a marketing company that was founded in 1998, prior to the rise of eCommerce platforms that fundamentally changed the way consumers interact with and purchase retail goods. At its start, Compass assisted Fortune 100 companies that sold consumer packaged goods (“CPGs”) in brick-and-mortar stores. In 2005, as consumer reliance on the internet expanded, Compass added online marketing and e-commerce services to its CPG clients to support sales to online retailers, including Staples.com, OfficeDepot.com, OfficeMax.com, SamsClub.com, Walmart.com, and Amazon.com.”
“The eCommerce expansion was a quick success. Compass represented iconic brands such as Splenda, Duracell, Neutrogena, Band Aid, Motrin, and Tylenol across Amazon, Target, Walmart, and Staples internet platforms, among many others listed below. Its revenue increased more than 1300% in six years, increasing from $284,894 in 2002 to $3,779,203 in 2008.”
Compass Built Out Its Operations to Assist Clients on the Amazon Platform
From the Complaint.

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