Michael Lissack and Whistleblowing
Dr. Lissack has acquired a national reputation as a
whistle blower following his role in exposing the arcane world
of municipal finance. In April 1998, the US Department of
Justice announced that it had joined in a whistleblower suit
Dr. Lissack filed regarding the repayment of nearly $1 billion
to the US Treasury. Since then the US
Government has recovered more than $250 million as the result
of Dr. Lissack's initiation of legal action. Since his first
public accusations in March 1995, he has been responsible for
shedding light on numerous illegal and unethical practices of
Wall Street firms. His allegations have been involved in more
than one dozen civil and criminal investigations by the SEC,
IRS and the US Department of Justice and in the promulgation
of IRS Revenue Procedure 96-41. The investment practices of
many state and local governments throughout the United States
have been revised as a result of Dr. Lissack’s initiative.
It is critical to realize that it is rare for a
successful whistleblower to be "uninvolved" in the scandal on
which they blew the whistle. Dr. Lissack was banned from
the securities industry from 1998 to 2003 in conjunction with
his activities in municipal finance. He and his prior
employer Smith Barney engaged in protracted and ugly
litigation between 1995 and 2001 regarding Dr. Lissack's
whistleblowing allegations.
Dr. Lissack presently has
a ongoing whistleblower action before regulators and the
courts regarding the alleged misappropriation of member
deposits by a formerly prominent Southwest Florida developer.
Dr. Lissack has written editorials on the subject of
whistle blowing for the New York Times and the Los Angeles
Times and has been profiled in many international publications
including Fortune, Business Week, the Economist, the Wall
Street Journal, the Financial Times, and USA Today.
External
links:
Chapters from Henry Scammel's book Giant Killers
Press Release from Phillips and Cohen
Wikipedia entry 1
Wikipedia entry 2
SEC
Action in 1998
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