Taxes
IRS Says Sorry to Ken Griffin for Tax Data Leak
The IRS apologized to the billionaire founder of Citadel for failing to protect his tax information from being leaked to the press.
Jun. 25, 2024
As part of a settlement with the billionaire founder and CEO of Citadel Ken Griffin, the IRS on Tuesday issued a lengthy apology to the hedge fund manager for failing to protect his and other wealthy Americans’ tax data from being leaked to the press.
Griffin filed a lawsuit against the IRS in December 2022 saying the agency violated his right to privacy after investigative journalism outlet ProPublica reported on his tax records, which were leaked by an IRS contractor.
The IRS contractor, Charles Littlejohn, who also stole and leaked the tax returns of other billionaires, including former President Donald Trump, Jeff Bezos, and Elon Musk, was sentenced to five years in prison earlier this year. U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes imposed the maximum sentence on Littlejohn and called his actions the biggest heist in IRS history and “an intolerable attack on our constitutional democracy.”
Yesterday, Griffin and the IRS filed to dismiss the lawsuit in Florida federal court after the two sides reached an agreement to resolve the matter, Bloomberg reported. The IRS’s public apology to Griffin was part of that agreement, according to Bloomberg.
Here is the full apology issued on July 25 by the IRS to Griffin and others impacted by Littlejohn’s breach:
The Internal Revenue Service sincerely apologizes to Mr. Kenneth Griffin and the thousands of other Americans whose personal information was leaked to the press.
Charles Littlejohn was a government contractor providing services to the IRS at the time he made the illegal disclosures. He violated the terms of his contract and betrayed the trust that the American people place in the IRS to safeguard their sensitive information.
The IRS takes its responsibilities seriously and acknowledges that it failed to prevent Mr. Littlejohn’s criminal conduct and unlawful disclosure of Mr. Griffin’s confidential data. Accordingly, the IRS assures Mr. Griffin and the other victims of Mr. Littlejohn’s actions that it has made substantial investments in its data security to strengthen its safeguarding of taxpayer information.
These investments address potential weaknesses in the IRS’s systems as identified by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA), which provides independent oversight of the IRS.
Additionally, the IRS continues, and will continue on a going-forward basis after this resolution, to work with TIGTA, the Government Accountability Office, other government agencies and independent third parties to assess the IRS’s systems for potential vulnerabilities.
The IRS routinely reports to the Senate Committee on Finance and the House Committee on Ways and Means, which exercise Congressional oversight of the IRS, on its efforts to strengthen any security deficiencies identified by the IRS, TIGTA, GAO and third parties.
The agency believes that its actions and the resolution of this case will result in a stronger and more trustworthy process for safeguarding the personal information of all taxpayers.
In a statement, Griffin said of the settlement, “I am grateful to my team for securing an outcome that will better protect American taxpayers and that will ultimately benefit all Americans.”