Ken Griffin vs. the IRS The Citadel CEO wants the tax agency to fix its security protocols. The agency says it’s not responsible for leaks. By The Editorial Board Oct. 31, 2023 6:33 pm ET Citadel CEO Ken Griffin in 2022. Photo: MIKE BLAKE/REUTERS Ken Griffin isn’t giving up on his fight to improve the Internal Revenue Service’s privacy protections, and all American taxpayers could benefit if the Citadel CEO wins. Explore Audio Center Late last week Mr. Griffin filed an amended version of his lawsuit against the tax agency for the “unlawful disclosure” of his confidential tax information. The hedge fund operator is one of the thousands of wealthy Americans whose private tax data was stolen from the IRS, then leaked and published by the left-leaning ProPublica website. Mr. Griffin’s original suit in December held the IRS responsible for the leak, citing the ways the agency had flouted Congressional requirements for security. The suit alleges that the IRS also ignored a decade of annual warnings by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (Tigta) that security deficiencies were the agency’s “number one major management and performance challenge area.” Lawyers for the IRS in April asked a judge to dismiss Mr. Griffin’s complaint, which it said was based on “unsupported speculation” that “IRS personnel” had “hacked the IRS’s data.” It said Mr. Griffin couldn’t even prove there was a “data breach at the IRS”; or that the information had been stolen from the IRS (instead of from his own “accountant”); or even that his actual “return information” had been given to ProPublica. Well, this month the Justice Department reached a plea deal with IRS contractor Charles Littlejohn, who admitted stealing and leaking those returns from 2018 to 2020. The theft encompassed 15 years of thousands of returns, as well as information about stock trades, investments and audits. The leaks coincided with a Democratic campaign for wealth taxes. Advertisement - Scroll to Continue The IRS has refused to change its legal position despite the plea deal. Mr. Griffin has thus amended his suit to include the government’s admission that Mr. Littlejohn stole and leaked actual IRS returns, as well as tying Mr. Littlejohn’s specific actions to previously identified IRS security failures. One example: The revised lawsuit notes that the IRS failed to ensure that all Windows computers connected to its network were authorized and compliant with security policy. Tigta has called this a security risk. The suit says this let Mr. Littlejohn “use virtual machines that simulated physical computers to avoid IRS protocols designed to detect and prevent large downloads or uploads from IRS devices or systems.” The suit adds that the Internal Revenue Manual defines employees as “‘all IRS personnel’ including ‘all contractors who have staff-like access.’” That includes Mr. Littlejohn. A spokesman for Mr. Griffin says he has no interest in monetary damages, though the law entitles him to at least $1,000 per disclosure and attorney’s fees. Instead he wants the IRS to apologize and to fix its security problems, including the introduction of an outside monitor to ensure compliance. That would seem to be the least the IRS could concede considering its manifest failures and the harm they caused the individuals whose records were stolen and leaked. Mr. Griffin’s goal is to make sure such a grievous breach of taxpayer privacy doesn’t happen again, and we salute him for fighting.
There's a fairly simple solution to this. Instead of $1,000 per breach, the IRS penalty for unlawful disclosure should be the Adjusted Gross Income of the individual or entity for each year a violation occurred. Other Federal agencies take special measures and maintain much tighter control over data on "famous" and "high net worth" individuals.
That sounds like just and fair law! I met a pipe-fitter who had his arm ripped off because his employer had shit equipment. $26,000 in good old Workers Compensatory damages. The lawyer got 15%. Do you have any ideas for plumbers and welders getting nothing or only the rich?
%% THAT\ + claw back all the........80Billion+L the proposed IRS increase+ give it to Israel+{ Ukraine if it fits the budget } is something like the current US House proposal. With it being an election year, cut not only taxes for super rich \ include a tax cut for the welders, plumbers all businesses and all. Even though its his business , he should change his mind get his high priced attorney fees from IRS also