The U.S. Department of the Treasury has announced the termination of all contracts with consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton. According to Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, the department held 31 separate contracts with Booz Allen Hamilton, which amounted to $4.8 million in annual spending and $21 million in total obligations.
Secretary Bessent stated, “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.” He added, “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.”
The decision follows a data breach involving Charles Edward Littlejohn, a Booz Allen Hamilton employee who stole and leaked confidential tax returns and return information between 2018 and 2020. The Internal Revenue Service found that approximately 406,000 taxpayers were affected by this breach. Littlejohn has pleaded guilty to felony charges for disclosing confidential tax information without authorization.
