<\/p>\n
military contractor Palantir<\/span> is helping the IRS analyze dozens of different data sets on Americans to investigate a broad range of financial crimes, according to records shared with The Intercept.<\/p>\n Since 2018, the Internal Revenue Service\u2019s Criminal Investigation division has used Palantir\u2019s Lead and Case Analytics platform to aggregate and analyze a sprawling list of sensitive federal databases and data sets.<\/p>\n Public records detailing Palantir\u2019s IRS contract, obtained by the nonprofit watchdog group American Oversight and shared exclusively with The Intercept, reveal the immense volume of data plugged into the military contractor\u2019s software. The LCA uses both Palantir\u2019s Gotham and Foundry applications to facilitate \u201canalysis of massive-scale data to find the needle in the hay stack,\u201d the contract paperwork says.<\/p>\n Documents indicate the IRS has paid Palantir over $130 million for these services to date.<\/p>\n Palantir\u2019s LCA is ostensibly directed toward cracking down on fraud, money laundering, and other financial crimes. According<\/a> to a 2024 agency privacy impact assessment, IRS \u201cSpecial agents and investigative analysts \u2026 utilize the platform to find, analyze, and visualize connections between disparate sets of data to generate leads, identify schemes, uncover tax fraud, and conduct money laundering and forfeiture investigative activities.\u201d<\/p>\n The IRS use of the software, launched under Trump\u2019s first term and expanded under Biden, is now in the hands of an IRS Criminal Investigations office that has drastically scaled back its pursuit of tax cheats and pivoted, under Trump\u2019s direction, toward investigating \u201cleft-leaning groups,\u201d the Wall Street Journal reported<\/a> in October.<\/p>\n \u201cThe real concern is the consolidation of vast amounts of sensitive personal data into a single system with minimal transparency \u2014 especially one built and operated by a contractor like Palantir, whose business model is premised on integrating data and expanding surveillance capabilities,\u201d American Oversight director Chioma Chukwu said in a statement to The Intercept. \u201cIts platforms have been used in deeply troubling contexts, from immigration enforcement to predictive policing, with persistent concerns about overreach, bias, and weak oversight.\u201d<\/p>\n Palantir did not respond to a request for comment, nor did the IRS.<\/p>\n \u201cThe real concern is the consolidation of vast amounts of sensitive personal data into a single system with minimal transparency \u2014 especially one built and operated by a contractor like Palantir.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n The contract documents reviewed by The Intercept reveal that these \u201cdisparate sets of data\u201d are vast. Palantir\u2019s LCA allows the IRS to quickly search and visualize \u201cconnections from millions of records with thousands of links\u201d between databases maintained by the IRS and other federal agencies. According to the contract documents, this data includes individual tax form and tax returns as well as Affordable Care Act data, bank statements, and transactions, and \u201call available\u201d data compiled by the Treasury Department\u2019s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network.<\/p>\n Its view apparently extends to cryptocurrencies including bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, and Ripple. \u201cThe application would sit on top of a singular repository of identified wallets from seized servers utilizing dark web data obtained from exchangers such as Coinbase,\u201d the documents note.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n