Ultrarich Tax-Dodgers Are Criminals, Not the IRS Whistleblower Who Exposed Them
Ultrarich Tax-Dodgers Are Criminals, Not the IRS Whistleblower Who Exposed Them
Charles Littlejohn, a former IRS contractor, leaked the tax returns of the rich to show the public how the uber-wealthy game our tax code. Now he’s facing potential prison time. They’ve nabbed the wrong criminal.
Charles Littlejohn, a former IRS contractor, leaked the tax returns of the rich to show the public how the uber-wealthy game our tax code. Now he’s facing potential prison time. They’ve nabbed the wrong criminal.
Did they game the system, or did they commit a crime? Did he commit a crime?
Don’t get me wrong, I’d eat Jeff Bezos for dinner given the chance… but I don’t think you can commit a crime to expose someone for being legally unethical and expect the crime to be forgiven.
If they committed a crime that the IRS was failing to address, then there should be regular whistleblower protections at play here. And if whistleblower protections are failing to do their jobs, then I hope this guy gets all the defense he deserves.
If there was no crime being unveiled -- just "normal" tax avoidance in order to dodge paying a fair share -- then the question is very different from the one you posed. It should be be whether the public's interest in having access to this information outweighs the violation of individual privacy it represents.
ALWAYS be wary of appeals to simple rules in vastly asymmetrical situations.
I'm not sure there's a clear-cut answer here, but I also think that once you have amassed a certain level of wealth, your expectation of privacy in your financial affairs necessarily diminishes. I don't see how the richest people in the world, people whose personal finances are so deeply intertwined in the operations of the public economy, have any claim to privacy at all when it comes to their own bookkeeping.
Is it whistleblowing when you leak private personal information to the public? I thought whistleblowing protections only would apply if the person reported their complaint to the United States Office of Special Counsel or the Merit Systems Protection Board.
That said, it seems there is often a greater public service when info is leaked to the public at large. But I don't really support releasing private personal info to the general public.
¿Por que no los dos?