IRS leak to ProPublica exposed more than 400,000 people, businesses

The tax records of more than 400,000 businesses and individuals were leaked to ProPublica by an IRS contractor who illegally accessed and downloaded the information between 2018 and 2020.

The IRS disclosed the information Tuesday to the House Judiciary Committee, which is investigating the data leak.

The disclosure follows reporting by The Washington Times that taxpayer information belonging to “hundreds of thousands” of taxpayers and businesses were illegally accessed and leaked to ProPublica by Charles Littlejohn, who is serving a five-year sentence for the crime.

Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, Ohio Republican, called the scope of the tax leak “a massive scandal.”

In total, the IRS reported that information from 405,427 taxpayers “was inappropriately disclosed by Mr. Littlejohn.” The agency said 89% of the taxpayers are business entities.

ProPublica, a nonprofit journalism organization, refused to disclose the number of tax records it possesses but has described the data Littlejohn provided as both “a massive trove” and “extremely limited.”

ProPublica produced a series of news stories using the illegally leaked data that focused on the ultra-rich and how much they pay in taxes.

In January, Dallas-based Alarm Concepts Inc., a security equipment firm, sued the IRS and Booz Allen Hamilton, the IRS contractor that employed Littlejohn, over the breach.