The rare government apology followed billionaire investor Ken Griffin dropping a lawsuit against the IRS and Treasury Department|Paul Elledge|CC BY-SA 4.0
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) apologized to billionaire investor Ken Griffin and thousands of taxpayers for failing to prevent the leak of his tax records to the press by former employee Charles Littlejohn.
Littlejohn had shared the tax disclosures of several wealthy billionaires apart from Griffin, including Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk, without authorization to ProPublica, which published the information in its 2021 series called “The Secret IRS Files,” which sparked debate on tax fairness in the country.
The rare government apology followed Griffin dropping a lawsuit against the IRS and the Treasury Department. As of June 2024, he is ranked as the 34th wealthiest person globally, with a net worth of approximately $42 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Ex-IRS employee Littlejohn, who pleaded guilty in 2023, was sentenced to five years in prison.
He is currently in a southern Illinois jail.