Biz journalist Eisinger joins ProPublica

Investigative journalism organization ProPublica announced that former Wall Street Journal and Portfolio columnist and reporter Jesse Eisinger will join its investigative newsroom as a senior reporter.

With the addition of Eisinger, ProPublica’s reporting and editing team now grows to 32 people.

Eisinger was most recently the Wall Street editor of Portfolio, where he wrote a November 2007 cover story titled “Wall Street Requiem” in which he predicted the demise of Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers.

Before joining Portfolio, he worked at The Journal where he was the founding writer of two market commentary columns, the weekly “Long & Short” and the daily “Ahead of the Tape,” and he played a leading role in exposing major fraud at Belgium-based Lernout & Hauspie. Eisinger will begin at ProPublica in early August.

“Jesse brings to ProPublica an outstanding record for investigative journalism, particularly on complex financial matters,” said ProPublica’s managing editor Stephen Engelberg in a statement. “We know he’ll bring some great stories to ProPublica and we’re very pleased to have him on board.”

During his tenure at the Journal’s European edition, Eisinger won a “Best in Business” award from the London-based World Leadership Forum for his coverage of accounting irregularities at the Irish drug maker Elan Corp. Earlier in his career, he covered biotechnology and pharmaceuticals for TheStreet.com and Dow Jones Newswires.