Headquarters of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in Washington, D.C. Credit: Diego M. Radzinschi / NLJ
Two months ago, whistleblower lawyer Sean McKessy was approached by a prospective client with a story to tell about misled investors and a company seizing on the coronavirus outbreak to smooth over past poor performance.
The company insider came to McKessy, a partner at Phillips & Cohen, with PowerPoint slides from an internal presentation that attributed unsettling financial figures to the health crisis. In fact, the whistleblower said, the problems predated the pandemic, and the company was now using COVID-19 as a cover.
