Investment firm Citadel’s CEO Kenneth Griffin filed a legal complaint against the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Tuesday, alleging agency staff illegally leaked his and other wealthy individuals’ private tax information.
ProPublica published confidential tax return information of Griffin and many other high-earning people in April and July 2022, the complaint notes, also naming the Treasury Department a defendant. Allegedly, IRS workers illegally provided the outlet with such information for thousands of wealthy people without their knowledge, according to the complaint, which accused the agency of intentionally failing to institute appropriate security measures against such misconduct.
Ken Griffin, Founder and CEO, Citadel, speaks during the Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills, California, on May 2, 2022. (Photo by Patrick T. FALLON / AFP) (Photo by PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images)
ProPublica published a series of stories in 2021 on leaked tax information of notable people including Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and Apple co-founder Steve Jobs’ widow Laurene Powell Jobs. (RELATED: Tax Filing Websites Might Have Given Facebook Your Financial Information: REPORT)
The IRS and Treasury Department have failed to meaningfully respond to Griffin’s requests that they formally demand ProPublica return any confidential IRS data it holds, the lawsuit alleges. It asks that the U.S. District Court of Southern Florida order the IRS to set up a data security plan complying with the Privacy Act, which governs federal agencies’ use of personal information in their records systems.
In June 2021, Republican Rep. Jim Jordan and then-Rep. Darrell Issa demanded IRS transparency over its probe into a June 2021 private tax record leak to the outlet.
The Treasury Department and Griffin’s attorneys did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s requests for comment.
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