BailoutSleuth.com expands reporting staff

BailoutSleuth.com, a nonprofit investigative journalism site funded by entrepreneur Mark Cuban, has expanded its reporting staff to keep closer tabs on TARP and financial regulators, and to dig more deeply into the causes and effects of the crisis.

In addition to editor Chris Carey, BailoutSleuth’s team now comprises three full-time writers and a consultant. The staff includes veteran reporter Gary Cohn, who won a Pulitzer Prize at the Baltimore Sun and more recently was the recipient of a 2009 Barlett & Steele Award for investigative business journalism. Cohn will pursue long-term projects, and is currently working on his first major BailoutSleuth.com investigation.

Ryan Holeywell is BailoutSleuth’s correspondent in Washington, D.C. Holeywell previously worked as a government reporter for The Monitor in McAllen, Texas.  Kevin O’Connor, an historian and former college professor, mines Securities and Exchange Commission filings and other government documents for details on TARP repayments, bank finances and executive compensation for the site.

In addition to its writing team, BailoutSleuth has retained Pulitzer Prize-winner Russell Carollo as a consultant to seek government documents and databases through Freedom of Information Act requests and analyze data.

“I’m thrilled with the team we’ve assembled and excited about the bigger projects we can pursue,” said Carey, who has edited the site since its inception in October 2008, in astatement. “This is the ultimate follow-the-money story. There’s still hundreds of billions of TARP dollars out there, and tens of billions in assets that the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. has absorbed from failed banks.’’