The IRS adds more scandals to its list

Seal of the United States Internal Revenue Service. The design is the same as the Treasury seal with an IRS inscription. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A class action suit was filed on March 11 in California, by Robert Barnes against the Internal Revenue Service for stealing and improperly accessing 60 million medical records. On March 11, 15 IRS agents raided a California company, only known in the law suit as the “John Doe Company”, in an attempt to confiscate information related to an employee that no longer worked there. The medical records belong to over 10 million Americans, most of whom live in California. The list includes members of the Screen Actors Guild, Director’s Guild, state employees, and includes both prominent and ordinary citizens.

The complaint states that these medical records had no relevance to the IRS search, and accuses the IRS agents of seizing the documents against their wishes, and regardless of the objection and warnings of company executives. The IRS agent’s conduct in the investigation is also being questioned in the law suit, because of their casual use of the company’s offices to watch basketball and eat pizza during their raid.

The law suit was filed by Barnes in the San Diego Superior court, and alleges that the IRS violated the privacy rules found in the 1996 Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, HIPAA. Medical records were not the only private items seized. According Nextgov.com, The agents also took personal mobile phones belonging to employees.

The “John Doe Company” seeks $25,000 in damages “per violation per individual” who’s records were taken, the return of the documents, and government assurances that there will be no retained copies of the private material.

There is a second law suit being filed against the IRS by the National Organization for Marriage (NOM).  NOM alleges that the IRS released confidential information from their 2008 tax returns to their reform issue opponents: the Human Rights Campaign, who then posted the information on their public website. The private information included a donor list; among the donors was Mitt Romney. 

Congressional Committee and Justice Department IRS investigations will continue in the following weeks on matters related to allegations that the IRS targeted conservative organizations in giving greater scrutiny when they applied for non profit exemption.

as seen on examiner.com