I am in a quandary regarding a crooked US publisher

I am in a quandary.

There is a publisher I have worked for and I know he is crooked because I had friends who worked for him at the company office, the warehouse and so on.

I was being told by him that the first book I did was "not selling well at all". The same day I got a letter from someone I knew who worked in the company warehouse who told me they had just had to unbox the third printing of the book (rights -under signed contract- were for FIRST PRINTING ONLY).

I then heard from someone I knew who was "interning" at the company. He was German and had been involved in zines which is why his name was familiar when he called me one evening. "Interning" meant earning very little and doing a lot of work. Out of the blue he told me "That collected albumis selling very well"....WTF? What album (trade)? Oh the series had been collected into a trade as the previous five printings had sold out.

!?

I then found that the artist involved had known about the trade and even did a new cover but had conspired with the publisher to keep me out of the loop. To steal my earnings.

Once the internet came along I found that my series had been serialised in Spanish. There was even a Spanish edition. An edition was published in France as well as Canada. All reprints stated the books were printed under license from the company. The company denied it until I produced correspondence from the foreign publishers.

The payment they offer for a book in 201`9 is exactly the same as offered in 1997 but in 1997 the 8 per cent royalty I got them to sign to was "unprecedented" with the company -they never paid that amount out before.

This publisher claimed t-shirts and books had been stolen at one time and got insurance for them. The person I knew rented out a room in this publisher's apartment (not where he lived but stored stuff). This person told me that they were shocked when they were asked to put something in one of the rooms and "There was all of the stuff that was supposed to be stolen!"

The guy is a bully. Everyone knows that. Now, if I came out and wrote a piece on him what back up would I have? None really since I doubt one person living in the same state would come forward to ruin their quiet lives and the attitude is "let someone else sort it out".

Now, if I make an official complaint to the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) then they could shut him down while they check into things. Put things on a lock-down and check his account(s) -I'm told in the 1990s he had the business account, personal account and "another".

The IRS means no name calling or having to put up with his insults that gets nothing really done. The IRS seems best as they'll dig up the dirt.

I have my own problems but I've said often enough that crooked publishers need to be taken to task for robbing creators blind and cheating at every turn. Go public or go IRS?

Still weighing the options but I know which I prefer.