Treasury cancels contracts over leak about rich taxpayers : NPR

The Treasury Division is canceling thousands and thousands of {dollars} value of contracts with the Booz Allen Hamilton consulting agency, after a contractor from the agency leaked confidential IRS data, displaying how rich Individuals handle to pay little or nothing in taxes.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent canceled a complete of 31 contracts with Booz Allen, totaling $21 million. The corporate’s inventory fell greater than 8%.

“Canceling these contracts is a necessary step to growing Individuals’ belief in authorities,” Bessent stated in an announcement. “Booz Allen didn’t implement satisfactory safeguards to guard delicate knowledge, together with the confidential taxpayer data it had entry to via its contracts with the Inside Income Service.

That data was the premise of explosive tales within the New York Occasions and ProPublica, displaying how rich individuals like Donald Trump, Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos handle to attenuate their tax obligations.

A Booz Allen contractor, Charles Edward Littlejohn, pleaded responsible in 2023 to leaking the confidential knowledge to reporters. He was sentenced to 5 years in jail.

Booz Allen stated it was stunned by the Treasury Division’s choice to cancel its contracts.

“Booz Allen has zero tolerance for violations of the regulation and operates beneath the very best moral {and professional} pointers,” the corporate stated in an announcement. “When Littlejohn’s felony conduct occurred greater than 5 years in the past, it was on authorities methods, not Booz Allen methods. Booz Allen shops no taxpayer knowledge on its methods and has no means to observe exercise on authorities networks.”

The corporate additionally stated it assisted the federal government in its investigation of Littlejohn, which aided in his prosecution.