(ConservativeHub.com) – In 2021, ProPublica published “The Secret IRS Files,” an exposé on the taxation of the wealthiest individuals in America, claiming it had no idea who supplied the tax data and refusing to say how it got the information. According to an exclusive from the Wall Street Journal, one man highlighted in the piece, billionaire Ken Griffin, filed a lawsuit against the IRS and the Treasury Department on December 13 for allowing his tax documents to fall into the hands of ProPublica.
Griffin, the founder and CEO of financial services company Citadel, claims the IRS failed to protect his tax information adequately and ignored his requests to retrieve the data from ProPublica and destroy any copies. He’s not launching a case against the media company because he believes the government failed in this instance.
New from me: Billionaire hedge-fund manager Ken Griffin sued the IRS and Treasury this morning over his tax data being published by ProPublica. https://t.co/rf4tQdpn8v
— Richard Rubin (@RichardRubinDC) December 13, 2022
ProPublica Editor-in-Chief Stephen Engelberg and former president Richard Tofel stood up for the story back in 2021, saying it was essential to provide readers the details of how the wealthy pay or don’t pay taxes. They noted in an essay that it served “the public interest in fundamental ways.”
The issue has been referred to Treasury Department’s inspector general and other agencies for investigation, according to spokeswoman Lily Adams, who spoke to WSJ. But neither agency has released a comment on the lawsuit.
Griffin believes a court should hold the IRS liable for the data leak due to improper security protocols. He’s seeking an order against the IRS and Treasury to provide him with documents about the leak. He has also asked the court to require the IRS to comply with The Privacy Act of 1974 and award him $1,000 in damages for every disclosure, along with attorney fees and costs.
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