Identities of up to 2 million customers of Countrywide possibly compromised by former employee
Written August 1st, 2008 at 9:23pm in News

More bad news for Countrywide. A former employee of the home lender and another man were arrested on suspicion of selling the identities of what could add up to millions of the company’s customers

Rene L. Rebollo, and Wahid Siddiqi were arrested by FBI agents at their homes. Both are Los Angeles area residents.

Officials say Rebollo, who worked as a senior financial analyst for Countrywide’s subprime division, Full Spectrum, sold the data to Saddiq, who turned around and sold it to others.

Rebollo, who was fired last month, had access to the embattled company’s databases that held the private information on customers.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, it is estimated that as many as 2 MILLION people could have been victims. The criminal complaint filed says that Rebollo admitted to “running” about 20,000 names a week. During an interview with the FBI, Rebollo allegedly told agents that this had been going on for two years. He also said that he made between $50,000 and $70,000 for it.

Siddiqi was busted after selling data to an FBI informant.

The investigation is on-going to determine how many people have actually had their identities compromised, and Countrywide says it will notify and assist victims as well.

Rebollo, the former employee, is charged with exceeding authorized acccess to the computer of a financial institution, and could face up to 5 years for it. He is free on bond, and scheduled to be arraigned on charges Aug. 25.

As for Siddiqi, he is charged with fraud and related activity, and faces up to 15 years in federal prison. He is scheduled to appear in court to face charges on Monday.

Countrywide was acquired by Bank of America last month.

What do you have to say?

Your email is never published or shared. If you would like an image to
appear with your comment, you need to set up a Gravatar account.

*
*

* indicates a required field.