IRS Investigator Sues Agency for Leaking Tax Records
Brian J. Visalli sued the Internal Revenue Service for allegedly leaking his confidential tax records to discredit him after he blew the whistle on tax enforcement failures.
Internal Revenue Service investigator Brian J. Visalli filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois alleging illegal retaliation by his employer. Visalli, a 24-year veteran specializing in tax fraud, claims the agency leaked his confidential personnel and tax records to United States Department of Justice prosecutors to facilitate his removal from his position.
The lawsuit asserts that the agency used minor, non-willful errors in Visalli's 2021 tax returns as a pretext for the leak. This retaliation allegedly followed years of whistle-blowing by Visalli regarding the agency's failure to aggressively target multinational tax-dodging schemes and complex offshore tax shelters.
Visalli claims the unauthorized disclosures led Justice Department personnel to label him as impaired under the Giglio v. the United States standard. He describes this label as a scarlet letter for federal criminal investigators because it compromises their credibility in court. Although the agency moved to remove him from his job in April 2026, Visalli remains employed and is seeking damages for medical costs and withheld performance rewards.
