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The Internal Revenue Service has apologized to Ken Griffin, billionaire CEO of hedge fund Citadel, as well as thousands of other wealthy Americans whose personal tax information was leaked to the press by a former IRS contractor.
Charles Littlejohn, who is serving a five-year prison sentence, exploited system loopholes to steal the income tax returns of wealthy people, including Tesla’s (TSLA) Elon Musk, Amazon’s (AMZN) Jeff Bezos and even Donald Trump. Littlejohn then leaked the information to the New York Times and ProPublica.
“The IRS takes its responsibilities seriously and acknowledges that it failed to prevent Littlejohn’s criminal conduct and unlawful disclosure of Griffin’s confidential data,” the federal tax agency said in a statement.
It added that it has made “substantial” investments in its data security safeguarding taxpayer information, which address potential weaknesses in the IRS’ systems.
The apology is part of a settlement with Griffin, who sued the IRS for neglecting to ensure safeguards for his private information. He withdrew the lawsuit on Monday. “I am grateful to my team for securing an outcome that will better protect American taxpayers,” he said in a statement.
The leaked disclosures had prompted Democratic lawmakers to call for a crackdown on tax avoidance by the ultrarich.
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