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.
[4] Other journalists have described him as being prone to conspiracy theories,[5] derailed by clunky writing, unorthodox methods, and questionable news judgment.
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."
[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.
[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.
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.
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.
Mercantile later told the Security & Exchange Commission the issues Lee and FFW raised would result in a delay of the merger.