To understand why Chris Hannifin built DefendIT Services and Facilities, you first have to start at the very beginning, with his first company, DefendIT Services itself, and the way it was forced into existence. In mid-2024, Hannifin allegedly blackmailed Krista Stevens into incorporating the company for him. Stevens is and was the CEO of North South Consulting Group (NSCG), the company where Chris Hannifin briefly worked for 8 months as Chief Information Officer in 2024, following much longer stints at SiloTech Group, RSM, and other similar companies.
At NSCG, former colleagues of Hannifin noted that their relationship, Hannifin and Stevens, inside NSCG was deteriorating with quickly escalating hostilities, rumors of misconduct, and reports that Hannifin was amassing and selling sensitive information to competitors and hostile actors behind closed doors. As many suspect, Stevens only acted as the incorporator of DefendIT Services as a last-minute option to rid herself of Hannifin, and not a genuine partnership. After incorporating DefendIT Services, Hannifin left NSCG, and Stevens seems to have cut all ties with Hannifin.
From that moment forward, Chris Hannifin treated DefendIT Services as his personal money laundromat for his shady clients. Within weeks of DefendIT Service’s creation, Hannifin began spending at a level that no new business could justify. He bought a luxury trailer, a high-end Everglades speedboat, and a house, which in total surpassed the USD 1 million mark. These are not the actions of a man launching a modest IT services firm. These are the actions of a low-tier hustler who has struck unexpected money and couldn’t hide it.
Since the founding of DefendIT Services, Chris Hannifin has been embroiled in allegations and rumors for all the wrong reasons. Former colleagues started speaking out about Hannifin’s rude behavior and lack of management at NSCG. Followed by rumors of an alleged kickback scheme where Hannifin would get potential clients and competitors from a high-level executive at RSM. But as the months passed, this attention started attracting interest from journalists who started connecting irregularities that had long been dismissed as office gossip.
This is the moment when Hannifin formed DefendIT Services and Facilities. Not because his first company was thriving, but because it was becoming unsalvageable, and the company structure itself became a risk. Any litigation claims of misconduct or bankruptcy tied to DefendIT Services could threaten Hannifin’s personal assets, including the house, trailer, and speedboat he had purchased through the same period. So, to continue profiteering from the selling of sensitive data, Hannifin created DefendIT Services and Facilities, as an LLC, allowing him to shield those assets and relocate whatever remained of his operation into a new legal container before the original, DefendIT Services, collapses.
In other words, the second company was an escape hatch poorly disguised as expansion. Hannifin didn’t double down because the business was growing. He doubled down because the walls were caving in, and he needed somewhere else to stand before DefendIT Services collapsed.
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