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Frank Bisignano, a former Wall Street executive, was appointed by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to a newly created position — CEO of the IRS — giving him oversight of an agency that holds financial records on virtually every American taxpayer.
This week, the Wall Street Journal reported that during his time as co-chief operating officer at JPMorgan Chase, Bisignano allegedly directed his security team to use surveillance software to access the emails of colleagues he viewed as rivals.
Among those reportedly targeted was Charlie Scharf, then JPMorgan's consumer-banking chief and now the CEO of Wells Fargo; one executive described slipping a code phrase into a message to test whether his inbox was being monitored — and then hearing Bisignano repeat it back to him.
Bisignano flatly denied the allegations, calling the story "bad journalism" and saying through his attorney that he "never directed anyone to look through any employee's or executive's communications or engaged in any form of surveillance" while at the firm.
The controversy comes on top of other scrutiny Bisignano already faces, including questions about a settlement he signed giving President Trump immunity from certain tax audits, which a federal judge recently criticized.
The episode is the latest turbulence in what has been an unusually chaotic stretch for IRS leadership — the agency cycled through seven different people in the commissioner role during 2025 alone, a pace of turnover with no precedent in the agency's history.
That churn included multiple acting commissioners and one confirmed commissioner, Billy Long, who lasted just two months; by the end of 2025, roughly 27% of the IRS workforce had left the agency, including 77% of its senior leadership.
For taxpayers, the ongoing instability raises real questions about whether the IRS can execute major upcoming changes on schedule, including the new Automatic Penalty Relief program set to replace First Time Abate starting in 2027.