Pretext The IRS–Sometimes No Need

   The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) has article today about IRS employees accessing confidential taxpayer information without authority WSJ Article.  When this happens the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA), TIGTA, investigates sort of like the Internal Affairs Division (IAD) on Law & Order.  Anyway, the incidents of IRS employees accessing taxpayer information without authorization increased from 448 in 2007 to 521 for fiscal year ending 2007.  Accessing taxpayer information without authority is strictly prohibited by the IRS and it is against the law. 

The WSJ says, “Over the past decade, Treasury investigators have opened more than 4,700 investigations. As a result, there have been 1,205 cases in which workers have been disciplined, and there have been 176 “successful prosecutions.”  Ummm, 176 successful prosecutions out of 4,700 investigations?  But, I digress. 

WSJ says that IRS employees accessed information for various reasons, including peeping at tax records of an ex-spouse, a neighbor, someone with whom they’re having an affair or a celebrity. But in some cases, the motives are more complex. 

WSJ says, “One case involved Josa’lyn Johnson, who worked as a tax-examining clerk at the IRS’s Philadelphia Service Center. The government said she disclosed confidential information, such as Social Security numbers, birth dates and bank-account information, of at least 24 individuals to someone outside the IRS — and was paid about $1,500 for the information.  She entered a guilty plea last summer to unauthorized disclosure of tax-return information and exceeding authorized access of a government computer, says her lawyer, Michael Engle.  Her sentence included three years’ probation, a $1,000 fine and a $200 special assessment.”

In a prior post, Here, I wrote about the pretexting individuals, 10 people, who were indicted by the Department of Justice for getting confidential tax information from the IRS.  TIGTA Special Agent in Charge,  Terry K. Peacock said in the U.S. Attorney’s press release:  “Citizens have the right to expect that their private information will be kept private, especially when it’s in the hands of the US Government.”  Now, says J. Russell George, the agency’s inspector general states in the Wall Street Journal article, “Taxpayers depend on a tax system that protects the confidentiality of the information they provide to the IRS. These cases can impact the integrity of the entire tax system.”  Of course, I agree. 

We may conclude from this WSJ article and the pretexting indictments, that there are far more internal IRS illegal access to taxpayer information than from outside IRS, private individuals.  There is an old saying about ”a few bad apples” spoiling the barrel.  My point is not all IRS employees are bad employee illegally accessing taxpayer information and not all information gatherers or private investigators are bad professionals illegally getting confidential taxpayer information from the IRS. 

Let’s not blame an industry or a federal agency for the bad acts of a few. 

Bill Lowrance

President PIAVA

president@piava.org

Talk About Pretexting? DOJ/FTC Investigate This!

        “They’re leaving “the Company” to snoop on your company.  How CIA agents are pushing corporate espionage to ominous new extremes.”  This is the opening sentence of an article in Conde Nast Portfolio.com. There is a slick story about Wal-Mart’s internal security department headed by a former senior security officer of the CIA and staffed by former agents from the CIA, FBI and other government agencies. 

The article says that several hundred former intelligence agents now work in corporate espionage, including some who left the CIA after 9/11.  They joined private investigation firms.  Further, the article says they engage in “cruder tactics already practiced by private investigators–pretexting.  “While private investigators have long posed as freelance reporters or job recruiters to get people to talk, former agents have elevated pretexting to an art” the article says.  They also use “high tech” GPS.  Some questionable investigative techniques used by these guys, according to the article, is “data haunts,” extreme electronic monitoring such as tracking cell phones and installing keystroke software.  The article said, “An ex-CIA agent described a group of his former colleagues who set up shop offshore so that they could tap into telephone calls–a practice prohibited by federal law–outside U.S. jurisdiction.”  “They call themselves the bad boys in the Bahamas,” he said.  One long time investigator is quoted in the article as saying, “that he recently lost business to some ex-CIA officers who promised a potential client that they could obtain the phone and bank records of a target.” 

You need to read the story to get the full jest of the tactics and techniques employed in this investigative world.  One company, using unusual techniques, is in federal court in Washington, DC, defending itself against KPMG and IPOC International Growth Fund Limited.  Our friend, Michael Thomas, of the Daily Caveat, covered these stories in more detail, see Here and Here. 

Oh well, it just gets curiouser and curiouser.  

Bill Lowrance

President PIAVA

president@piava.org

Congress Passes First FOIA Reform In Ten Years

   Thanks to Sabrina Pacifici, beSpacific, for alerting us that the FOIA bill passed through Congress. 

The House passed the FOIA Reform Bill (Open Government Act)  (S 2448) that was passed by the Senate last week.  The new bill aims to fix some real, everyday problems in FOIA practice and procedure used by federal agencies.  Such problems as excessive delays, lack of response and litigation gamesmanship practiced by the Department of Justice lawyers who represent federal agencies.  The bill establishes a tracking system for requests, penalizes agences for delays some delays which took up to 20 years and set up an office to mediate disputes as an alternative to litigation.

The bill now goes to the White House for signature.  We will see how it turns out.

See good summary at National Security Archive

Bill Lowrance

President PIAVA

president@piava.org