The Treasury Department lower ties with Booz Allen Hamilton on Monday and introduced that it was canceling $21 million in federal contracts with the consulting large as a result of one in every of its ex-employees beforehand leaked President Donald Trump’s tax returns to the press.
An announcement from Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent referenced Charles Littlejohn, a onetime Booz worker who’s now serving a five-year prison term for stealing tax return data on Trump and different rich Americans whereas contracting on the IRS.
“President Trump has entrusted his cabinet to root out waste, fraud, and abuse, and canceling these contracts is an essential step to increasing Americans’ trust in government,” Bessent stated in the statement. “Booz Allen failed to implement adequate safeguards to protect sensitive data, including the confidential taxpayer information it had access to through its contracts with the Internal Revenue Service.”
A Booz Allen spokesperson disputed a few of Bessent’s claims in an announcement to NCS.
“Booz Allen fully supported the U.S. government in its investigation, and the government expressed gratitude for our assistance, which led to Littlejohn’s prosecution,” the spokesperson stated. “We look forward to discussing this matter with Treasury.”
The Booz Allen spokesperson stated Littlejohn’s crimes occurred “on government systems, not Booz Allen systems” and that Booz Allen “stores no taxpayer data on its systems and has no ability to monitor activity on government networks.”
Littlejohn pleaded guilty in 2023 to 1 depend of unauthorized disclosures of revenue tax returns. Trump’s tax data was revealed by The New York Times and ProPublica, which revealed that Trump paid no federal revenue taxes for a few years earlier than changing into president. The leaks additionally targeted hundreds of different rich individuals.
The choose who sentenced him stated he pulled off “the biggest heist in IRS history.” The Treasury Department stated the info breach affected greater than 400,000 taxpayers. The case was prosecuted by the Justice Department throughout the Biden administration.
Federal information point out that Littlejohn is incarcerated at a medium-security federal jail in southern Illinois and that he’s scheduled to be launched in October 2027.
Booz Allen shares (BAH) fell by about 10% after Bessent introduced the canceled contracts.