Jesse Eisinger
Jesse Eisinger is a senior editor and reporter at ProPublica. In April 2011, he and a colleague won the Pulitzer Prize for national reporting for a series of stories on questionable Wall Street practices that helped make the financial crisis the worst since the Great Depression.
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Jesse Eisinger is a senior editor and reporter at ProPublica. He is the author of the “The Chickenshit Club: Why the Justice Department Fails to Prosecute Executives.”
In April 2011, he and a colleague won the Pulitzer Prize for national reporting for a series of stories on questionable Wall Street practices that helped make the financial crisis the worst since the Great Depression. He was the lead reporter on the “Secret IRS Files” series that exposed the tax avoidance strategies of the ultrawealthy. The series won several prizes, including the Selden Ring in 2022. He also won the 2015 Gerald Loeb Award for commentary.
He was the editor on the “Friends of the Court” series, which revealed how a small group of politically influential billionaires wooed justices with lavish gifts and travel; it won the Pulitzer Prize for public service in 2024.
He serves on the advisory board of the University of California, Berkeley’s Financial Fraud Institute. And he was a consultant on season 3 of the HBO series “Succession.”
His work has appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, NewYorker.com, The Washington Post, The Baffler and The American Prospect and on NPR and “This American Life.” Before joining ProPublica, he was the Wall Street editor of Conde Nast Portfolio and a columnist for The Wall Street Journal, covering markets and finance.
He lives in Brooklyn with his wife, the journalist Sarah Ellison, and their daughters.
Who’s More Likely to Be Audited: A Person Making $20,000 — or $400,000?
If you claim the earned income tax credit, whose average recipient makes less than $20,000 a year, you’re more likely to face IRS scrutiny than someone making twenty times as much. How a benefit for the working poor was turned against them.
How the IRS Was Gutted
An eight-year campaign to slash the agency’s budget has left it understaffed, hamstrung and operating with archaic equipment. The result: billions less to fund the government. That’s good news for corporations and the wealthy.
After Budget Cuts, the IRS’ Work Against Tax Cheats Is Facing “Collapse”
Audits and criminal referrals are down sharply since Congress cut the tax agency’s budget and management changed priorities.
Why Manafort and Cohen Thought They’d Get Away With It
It takes a special counsel to actually catch white-collar criminals.
New Commissioner Says FTC Should Get Tough on Companies Like Facebook and Google
Citing lax treatment of corporate malefactors, Rohit Chopra calls for the FTC to impose more significant penalties when companies violate its orders.
‘Trump, Inc.’ Podcast: Russia, Trump and ‘Alternative Financing’
Why is President Trump so solicitous of Russia? Glenn Simpson has a theory, involving Trump’s businesses.
The CFPB’s Declaration of Dependence
Born as a fiercely independent agency meant to protect citizens, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has quickly been subsumed into the Trump administration. Banks, student-loan agencies and payday lenders are the winners.
Manhattan District Attorney Says He’ll No Longer Accept Contributions From Lawyers With Cases Before Him
Cy Vance had faced criticism after declining to prosecute high-profile defendants such as Ivanka and Donald Trump Jr. and Harvey Weinstein, whose lawyers had donated to his campaign.
The Trump Administration Is Scuttling a Rule That Would Save People From Dying of Carbon Monoxide Poisoning
It took 16 years and more than 1,000 deaths for the Consumer Products Safety Commission to crack down on deadly portable generators. Trump’s appointees could undo that in a matter of months.
Wells Fargo Offering Refunds Nationwide for Improper Mortgage Fees
The bank’s practice of making customers pay for delays that were its own fault, first reported by ProPublica, was more far-reaching than previously known.