Silicon.com reports that Michael Johnson, a one-time City IT manager who has been involved in a five-year legal battle to clear his name, has gone bankrupt with debts of $4.8m.

Johnson was working for Perot Systems on the UBS Investment Bank account, and claims he was fired after his employer discovered that The Abbey National had issued a fraud alert on him in error, claiming that he had used a false address to try and set-up a bank account.

Deutsche Bank soon hired Johnson as a $114,000 a year technical manager, and instructed a firm of professional reference checkers to vet him. The firm allegedly called Johnson's former manager at Perot, Simon Hull, and say that they received damaging comments about the staffer from him. Hull says that he was misquoted.

Johnson soon went on sick leave with stress and depression. He was fired in September, 2001, 10 months after Deutsche hired him. Failing in an unfair dismissal claim against the bank (Deutsche was said to have acted fairly on the basis of the reference), Johnson then decided to sue Perot for $18.4m. That claim was thrown out by the UK High Court, but the case is currently being considered by The House of Lords Appeal Committee.

Claiming that the stress and uncertainty of the affair has left him classed as disabled, Johnson plans to continue his legal fight, despite his bankruptcy. He did not work between September 2001 and November 2005.

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