IRS apologizes to billionaire Ken Griffin for leaking his tax records

The IRS issued a rare apology to billionaire investor Ken Griffin for releasing his tax records to the press, as well as to other taxpayers whose information was breached, the tax agency said in a statement on Tuesday.

"The Internal Revenue Service sincerely apologizes to Mr. Kenneth Griffin and the thousands of other Americans whose personal information was leaked to the press," the IRS said.

The apology stems from the case of a former IRS contractor named Charles Littlejohn, who was sentenced earlier this year to five years in prison for unauthorized disclosure of tax returns. Littlejohn had provided tax return information for Griffin and other wealthy Americans to nonprofit news organization ProPublica.