Dan White, a senior prosecutor in the St. Mary’s County State’s Attorney’s Office, zipped around the county’s circuit courthouse in late 2019, pausing only briefly to eat a Lifesaver for lunch. White, then 53, had made the winning arguments in several violent felony cases and jokingly compared himself to gritty characters portrayed by Clint Eastwood.
Around the same time White was swaggering around the Southern Maryland courthouse, the FBI was investigating his role at Compass Marketing, the Annapolis-based family business he founded with his younger brother, John, in 1998.
Dan White had moonlighted as general counsel to the marketing firm between working as a full-time prosecutor for two decades until his resignation from the state’s attorney’s Office this month.
With John as CEO, and an older brother, Michael, now a St. Mary’s County orphans’ court judge, serving as vice president of operations, Compass raked in millions in its first decade of existence, boasting big-name clients like Unilever, Gillette, Blistex and Slim Fast. The brothers came up with their business plan on the back of a napkin after a round of golf, John White told The Capital in 2006.
Compass established offices in Eastport and at its peak became known for its philanthropic efforts in the Annapolis community. The firm sponsored local windsurfer Farrah Hall in her campaigns for the 2008 and 2012 Summer Olympics, raised tens of thousands of dollars for the Maryland Chapter of the Leukemia…
