IRS Apologizes to Ken Griffin to Settle Tax Data Breach Case

The US Internal Revenue Service issued an unusual public apology to hedge fund manager Ken Griffin for failing to protect his confidential tax data from being stolen and leaked to the media by a contractor now in prison.

That contractor, Charles Littlejohn, pulled off one of the most egregious security breaches in IRS history, stealing tax return information about Griffin and other billionaires, including former President Donald Trump, Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos. Lawmakers and government watchdogs have repeatedly warned about about lax safeguards at the IRS, which processed more than 270 million tax returns in fiscal year 2023. Littlejohn gave Trump’s tax information to the New York Times and the data on the others to ProPublica.