WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service apologised to billionaire investor Ken Griffin for the release of his tax returns, saying the government is addressing the data security lapses exposed by the damaging leak of Griffin’s information and that of many other wealthy Americans.

The apology followed Griffin’s withdrawal on 24 June of a lawsuit against the government. Griffin, along with Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk, was one of the wealthy taxpayers whose tax records were disclosed by IRS contractor Charles Littlejohn to the news organisation ProPublica and revealed publicly in news articles starting in June 2021.