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Matthew Lee (lawyer)

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For the American sociologist, see Matthew Lee (sociologist). For people with a similar name, see Matt Lee (disambiguation).
Matthew Lee
Born
Washington, D.C., U.S.
Alma materFordham Law School
Occupations
Notable credit(s)Founded Inner City Press and Fair Finance Watch;[1] author of Predatory Bender[2]

Matthew Lee is an American public interest lawyer, author of the self-published novel Predatory Bender,[3] and founder of two non-profit organizations, Inner City Press and Fair Finance Watch.

Lee is known for breaking stories and in recent years for live-tweeting Manhattan federal court trials.[4] Other journalists have described him as being prone to conspiracy theories,[5] derailed by clunky writing, unorthodox methods, and questionable news judgment.[6][7][8] Some of Lee's former colleagues have accused him of printing gossip, rumors and lies. The President of the United Nations Correspondents Association said Lee is "brilliant" but his behavior was increasingly unpredictable and he "can ask smart questions, but accuses people of things that don’t exist." Confrontations with Lee have led to journalists calling the police and United Nations security.[8]

Personal life

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Lee was born in Washington, D.C., to parents of Chinese and Anglo descent. His father was in the U.S. Foreign Service. After finishing middle school overseas, Lee attended high school in the US.[9] Lee grew up in Europe, the Middle East and Washington, and dropped out of Harvard after two years after feeling disgust with the excited reactions of his fellow students to Goldman Sachs recruiters. He later graduated from Fordham University without getting a bachelors degree.[3][8]

Career

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After dropping out of Harvard, he volunteered with the Catholic Worker Movement. He lived and worked in their soup kitchen dormitory and covered housing for The Catholic Worker newspaper and worked with a construction crew from Brooklyn.[10]

In 1987, Lee started Inner City Press, which he finances through Google Ads and LexisNexis.[11]

In 2000, Lee's investigation of the merger of US Bank and Firstar was followed by a Federal Reserve Board inquiry into the banks' practices.[12] In 2004, Lee's challenge to Citigroup's CitiFinancial Credit Co. resulted in Citigroup paying a $70 million fine.[3] As of 2005, Lee produced weekly reports on, and advocates concerning global banks such as HSBC.[13] In 2005-2006, Lee was engaged in litigation to deem the "citizens-only" provision of the Freedom of Information Act of Delaware (and ten other states) to be unconstitutional.[14]

In mid-2006, Lee published allegations in Inner City Press of human rights abuses by the Uganda People's Defense Force in the Karamoja region of Uganda, which it denied.[15] On February 13, 2008 Google removed Inner City Press from Google News, which Lee alleged was due to pressure from the United Nations. Google News said it was a glitch and that Inner City Press would be restored.[6][better source needed]

In August 2011, Inner City Press published a UN internal plan for post-Gaddafi Libya.[16] In October 2012, Inner City Press raised fair lending and compliance issues about M&T Bank's application to acquire Hudson City Bancorp.[17]

In 2012, after Inner City Press's reporting on Sri Lanka, Syria and United Nations corruption, the United Nations Correspondents Association created a Board of Examination to investigate Lee for allegations of unethical and unprofessional behaviour and expel Inner City Press. The Board of Examination included the UN bureau chiefs of Reuters, Bloomberg and AFP and was started by Giampaolo Pioli, the President and Executive Committee of the UNCA. According to The Guardian, personal disputes including Lee complaining about other journalists not crediting him and accusing the UNCA president of a conflict of interest involving Sri Lanka were at the heart of the dispute. The Board of Examination was created after Lee confronted reporters from Reuters and Louis Charbonneau about articles he thought he should have been credited in, and a history of a similar disputes. During the dispute, Lee frequently emailed his accusers and their bosses, and accused an Agence France Presse correspondent of attempting to punish him for embarrassing the Élysée Palace. Lee also accused the UNCA of engineering threats against him, which they called "a false and damaging claim".[18][19][5] The spokesman for MALU, the orgnizsation granting UN press accreditation said the investigation would not "directly influence" their decision about Lee.[19][5] The World Policy Journal contradicted Lee's allegations of censorship, writing that his stories "appear to harass his accusers" and that one person was brought to tears by what Lee wrote about her.[5] After his eviction from the UN, Lee spent his mornings waiting at the UN entrance in the morning so he can ask delegates questions as they enter while live streaming, and wrote his articles at his bus stop and the library.[10]

In 2012, Lee left the UNCA after unsuccessfully running against Giampaolo Pioli for president.[8]

In the Spring of 2013, in the US, Inner City Press and Fair Finance Watch raised fair lending issues regarding Investors Bank.[20]

Lee and Fair Finance Watch in October 2013 raised fair lending concerns regarding Mercantile Bank and its proposed acquiring of FirstBank. Mercantile later told the Security & Exchange Commission the issues Lee and FFW raised would result in a delay of the merger.[21]

In January 2016, Lee went to a United Nations briefing uninvited, posting on Twitter and live streaming the event, and refusing to leave starting an argument between Lee and United Nations press staff members and security officials. As a result, Lee's resident correspondent status at United Nations (UN) was downgraded to non-resident correspondent and his free office cleaned out, which Lee called an attempt to censor him. Some of Lee's fellow journalists said his reaction was a typical overstatement, that he has a persecution complex and that confrontations with Lee had led other journalists to call the police and United Nations security. Other journalists, including Notimex's Maurizio Guerrero, called the punishment excessive.[8]

In 2018, Inner City Press / Fair Finance Watch challenged a merger by People's United Bank.[22]

In 2023, Lee live-tweeted the Samuel Bankman-Fried trial.[4] In January 2024 he tweeted about the E. Jean Carroll v. Trump trial, and told Salon that 10 consecutive objections from Carroll's attorneys were sustained.[23]

References

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  1. ^ "INNER CITY PRESS COMMUNITY ON THE MOVE INC". GuideStar. Archived from the original on 2014-10-18. Retrieved 2013-02-22.
  2. ^ Lord, Rich (December 11, 2003). "Review of Predatory Bender: A Story of Subprime Finance by Matthew Lee". Pittsburgh City Paper. Archived from the original on September 13, 2016. Retrieved September 7, 2013.
  3. ^ a b c Powell, Michael (2006-04-17). "A Citizen of the World, at Home in the Bronx". ISSN 0190-8286. Archived from the original on 2012-11-07. Retrieved 2023-12-29.
  4. ^ a b "Why the real star of Sam Bankman-Fried's trial is a one-man news operation called Inner City Press". Forbes. 2023-11-02.
  5. ^ a b c d Armstrong, Richard (2012-06-28). "Trouble in the UN Press Core: Is One Reporter a Bully or a Crusader? | World Policy Institute". World Policy Journal. Archived from the original on 2012-08-15. Retrieved 2023-12-29.
  6. ^ a b Park, Michael (2015-03-25). "Journalist Who Exposes U.N. Corruption Disappears From Google". Fox News. Archived from the original on 2023-11-29. Retrieved 2023-12-29.
  7. ^ McGregor, Tom (2012-09-04). "What is Inner City Press? | UN Post". UN Post. Archived from the original on 2012-09-04. Retrieved 2023-12-29.
  8. ^ a b c d e Kilgannon, Corey (2016-05-14). "After Frustrating Officials, a Longtime U.N. Blogger Has His Access Curtailed". Archived from the original on 2022-11-16. Retrieved 2023-12-29.
  9. ^ "Matthew Lee - Ashoka - USA". Archived from the original on 2013-04-14. Retrieved 2013-02-22.
  10. ^ a b Darrach, Amanda. "The intrepid reporter who got expelled from the UN". Columbia Journalism Review.
  11. ^ Konigsberg, Eric (2011-09-19). "The Beat". The New Yorker. ISSN 0028-792X. Archived from the original on 2023-11-21. Retrieved 2023-12-29.
  12. ^ Schwab, Paul (December 17, 2000). "Fed requests more information on banks' minority lending practices". Milwaukee Business Journal. Retrieved March 1, 2020.
  13. ^ Walsh, Conal (2005-12-18). "HSBC 'overcharging' US troops". The Observer. ISSN 0029-7712. Archived from the original on 2023-12-24. Retrieved 2023-12-24.
  14. ^ Farrell, Rita K. (May 12, 2006). "Court to Rule on Delaware Public Records Law". The New York Times. p. C10. Archived from the original on July 6, 2012. Retrieved January 25, 2015.
  15. ^ UNDP suspends Karamoja projects Archived 2007-02-14 at the Wayback Machine - The New Vision, 6/28/06
  16. ^ "UN 'plan for post-Gaddafi Libya' leaked". Al Jazeera English. Archived from the original on 2020-06-21. Retrieved 2023-12-24.
  17. ^ "Strictly Business". Archived from the original on 2013-04-05. Retrieved 2013-06-01.
  18. ^ Schaefer, Brett (2012-06-19). "Good Journalism at the U.N.?". National Review Online. Archived from the original on 2012-06-19. Retrieved 2023-12-29.
  19. ^ a b "UN journalists threaten to expel reporter". the Guardian. 20 June 2012. Archived from the original on 29 November 2023. Retrieved 24 December 2023.
  20. ^ "Investors, Roma bank merger still awaiting regulator's approval". The Star-Ledger. April 30, 2013. Archived from the original on July 10, 2018. Retrieved March 1, 2020.
  21. ^ Harger, Jim (2013-11-27). "Mercantile Bank says merger with Firstbank will be delayed by federal probe over minority lending". mlive. Archived from the original on 2022-05-02. Retrieved 2023-12-29.
  22. ^ French, Howard. "Bank buyout challenged over lending record". Journal Inquirer. Archived from the original on 2018-10-22. Retrieved 2018-12-17.
  23. ^ Tandanpolie, Tatyana (2024-01-18). ""Did you not hear me?": Judge calls out Trump lawyer for flunking "Evidence 101" at trial". Salon. Retrieved 2024-02-02.
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