Business

Billionaire hedge fund boss Ken Griffin sues IRS for leak of his tax returns

Billionaire hedge fund manager Ken Griffin has filed a lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service alleging that someone a꧃t the agency illegally leaked his tax returns to the news site ProPublica last year.

Griffin, the founder and CEO of Citadel, accused the IRS anđŸ”¯d the Treasury Department of breaching privacy l🐈aws after ProPublica published tax information of billionaires including Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and real estate mogul Stephen Ross.

The Post has sought comment from the Treasury Department, which has vowed to investigat📖e the leak.

ProPublica titled “The Secret IRS Files” last year examining thousands of tax returns belonging to the wealthiest Americans.

The site , Griffin, whose net worth to be $31.9 billion, reported an average annual income of almost $1.7 billion, but paid a tax rate of just 29.2% — far lower than the top marginal income tax rate of nearly 40%.

ProPublica found that other mogulā´œs worth billions managed to avoid income tax entirely for years by claiming substantial losses in their businesses.

Griffin alleges that the IRS broke the law by leaking his tax returns to the news site ProPublica last year. Bloomberg via Getty Images

“The IRS made these unlawful disclosures knowingly, or at the very least negligently or with gross negligence,” Griffin’s lawsuit, which was filed in Miami federal court on Tuesday, states.

“The IRS willfully failed to establish appropriate administrative, technical, and physical safeguards to insure the security and co𝔍nfidentiality of Mr. Griffin’s confidential taxpayer information.”

The lawsuit continued: “Despite being aware of its security deficiencies for over a decade, the IRS willfully failed to establish appropriate administrative, techn🐠ical, and physical safeguards to insure the security of confidential tax return information, including Mr. Griffin’s confidential tax return information.”đŸŒŗ

ProPublica obtained tax returns of other prominent billionaires, including Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. NBCUniversal/NBCU Photo Bank via

“IRS personnel exploited these will🍌ful failures to misappropriate Mr. Griffin’s confidential tax return information and unlawfully disclose that informatio🍸n to ProPublica for further publication,” the court filing stated.

Griffin is seeking $1,000 for each act of “unauthorized” disclosure as well as unspecified damages.

Republicans, who expressed outrage at the leak of the tax returns, have vowed to pursue further investigations once they assume control of the 🎃House of Representatives after the new year.

ProPublica also published sensitive information pertaining to tax payments by Tesla CEO Elon Musk. Bloomberg via Getty Images

“IRS employees deliberatđŸŒŗely stole the confidential tax returns of several hundred successful American ęĻ“business leaders,” Griffin said in a statement

“It is unacceptable that government officials have failed to thoroughly investigate this unlawful theft ofđŸ˜ŧ confidential 🐎and personal information.”

Stephen Engelberg, ProPublica’s editor-in-chief, and the site’s then-president, Dick Tofel, wrote last year they were “quite selectively and carefully” publishing confidential tax return data because “we believe it serves the public interest in fundamental ways, allowing readers to see patterns that were until now hidden.”

ProPublica has not specifie🌊d precisely how it obtained th🌌e information.