The leader of the ‘nerd squadron’ at the Department of Government Efficiency is described as a ruthless CEO who is perceived as lacking compassion when it comes to laying off employees, according to some shocking claims.

Tom Krause has been installed as the Treasury Department’s fiscal assistant secretary, replacing a longtime career civil servant.

The Silicon Valley executive is an ally of Elon Musk and has been tasked with managing the nation’s payment system.

He will be working closely with the six baby-faced men handpicked by Musk to help trim the fat on public spending. 

His initial days in this role have been met with controversy and legal action due to allegations that he inappropriately accessed the payment system and attempted to block payment instructions authorized by Congress unlawfully.

Krause is a shrewd businessman who is CEO of Cloud Software Group, a holding company following the merger between software firms Citrix and TIBCO.

In 2022, Krause was appointed as the CEO of Citrix, where he earned a reputation as a merciless executive, implementing mass layoffs to help the company recover from a whopping $15 billion debt, as detailed in a Prospect report.

Krause was selected for his track record of squeezing customers and slashing overheads.

Almost immediately upon starting with Citrix, he announced 1,000 layoffs followed by several thousand more equivalent to 15 percent on the workforce.

He also mandated a return to the office – even though Citrix’s products are designed to facilitate work from home.

Krause only abandoned the unpopular directive when it became apparent he could save on the costs of running an office.

Bonuses, ‘thank you’ days for managers who worked over time and Citrix branded merch were all jettisoned in the name of frugality.

By the start of last year, a further 12 percent of the workforce had been axed by Krause.

‘It was so cold, it was literally like, OK, you’re being laid off, your access to the systems is going to be cut off in an hour,’ former employee David Morgan, a disabled veteran, told Prospect.

‘He runs everything into the ground, look at his time at Broadcom. The dude is a heartless person who should not be in any line of business, but especially not in the government sector.’

Krause’s cut throat approach has landed him in more than one legal battle after he refused to pay an invoice for the remaining Citrix merchandise and a separate bill for financial services from another company. Both instances were settled out of court.

‘The criteria for DOGE is how many you have fired, how much you enjoy firing people, and how little you care about the impact on peoples well being,’ an anonymous user posted at online forum TheLayoff.

‘No wonder TK [Tom Krause] was tapped for this. He’s their dream employee!’

Krause was tapped to take over after then-acting Treasury Secretary David Lebryk was ousted from the position shortly after refusing to hand over access to the Treasury payments system. 

Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon of the Senate Finance Committee, has written a letter to Treasury secretary Scott Bessent demanding clarity on Krause’s intentions.

Krause has claimed he only wanted to halt payments so he could review them, per emails obtained by CNN.

When advised that such action could pose legal risk, he threatened that Lebryk could face his own liabilities if he refused to comply, per the emails.

He and DOGE were dealt a blow after a judge handed down a temporary restraining order severing access to systems which process 88 percent of the federal government’s payments.

The Trump administration said it hired Krause as a consultant for DOGE to work as a special employee of the Treasury department.

Krause CEO has more than 20 years experience in leading tech companies and previously served as an executive officer of Broadcom Inc.

He is an economics graduate of Princeton University and began his technology career  with Robertson Stephens and Technology Crossover Ventures.