Treasury cancels Booz Allen contracts after employee leaked
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced on Monday that all Treasury Department contracts with consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton have been canceled. This decision comes after an employee leaked tax records of President Donald Trump, Jeff Bezos, and Elon Musk to media outlets.
Following the announcement, Booz Allen Hamilton’s stock price dropped by 8%.
The Treasury Department revealed that it currently has 31 contracts with Booz Allen Hamilton, amounting to $4.8 million in annual spending and $21 million in total obligations.
“President Trump has tasked his cabinet with eliminating waste, fraud, and abuse, and terminating these contracts is a vital step towards rebuilding trust in government,” stated Bessent.
The Booz Allen Hamilton Headquarters in Mclean, Virginia.
Image Source: Getty Images
Bessent criticized Booz Allen for failing to implement adequate safeguards to protect sensitive data, including confidential taxpayer information obtained through its contracts with the IRS.
The department disclosed that between 2018 and 2020, Booz Allen employee Charles Edward Littlejohn leaked confidential tax returns and return information of hundreds of thousands of taxpayers.
The IRS reported that approximately 406,000 taxpayers were affected by the data breach.
In October 2023, Littlejohn, 40, pleaded guilty to disclosing tax return information. He confessed to leaking Trump’s tax records to The New York Times and records about wealthy individuals to ProPublica. Littlejohn received a maximum five-year prison sentence in January 2024.
CNBC has reached out to Booz Allen for a comment.
