The Internal Revenue Service apologized to billionaire investor Ken Griffin for the release of his tax returns, saying the government is addressing the data-security lapses exposed by the damaging leak of Griffin’s information and that of many other wealthy Americans.
The apology followed Griffin’s withdrawal Monday of a lawsuit against the government. Griffin, along with Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk, was one of the wealthy taxpayers whose tax records were disclosed by IRS contractor Charles Littlejohn to the news organization ProPublica and revealed publicly in news articles starting in June 2021.
“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,” the agency said in a Tuesday apology to Griffin and other victims. “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.”
Griffin, who founded the investment firm Citadel, is the 34th wealthiest person in the world, with a net worth of about $42 billion as of Sunday, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. He sued the IRS in December 2022 over the breach, with the aim of prodding the government to improve data security and acknowledge its mistakes rather than getting the modest monetary damages he could likely claim in court.
Can you trust the IRS after this?
