News

Countrywide Personal Information Security Breach Lawsuit Moved to Kentucky

Posted on Dec 19, 2008

From the Louisville Courier-Journal:

"A New Jersey couple are suing Countrywide Financial Corp. and two other people, claiming the company allowed a security breach involving detailed financial information from more than 2 million customers.

Matthew and Danielle Holmes of Mount Holly, N.J., want a judge to grant class-action status to claims that an employee of the mortgage giant stole detailed financial information from customers and sold it to another person, who then sold it to an unknown number of companies.

The lawsuit filed in federal court in Paducah, Ky., yesterday is one of more than 30 filed nationally. All the lawsuits have been transferred to Kentucky, where U.S. District Judge Thomas B. Russell of Paducah will oversee the cases.

Donald Haviland Jr. of Philadelphia, attorney for the Holmeses, said Countrywide Financial had all his clients' financial information, including mortgage information, credit-card and Social Security numbers and birthdates. Haviland said the breach has the potential to wreck their finances.

"Anyone who has this information could be these people at any time," Haviland said. "They are considering having to change everything -- their bank, credit cards, everything."

Shirley Norton, a spokeswoman for Countrywide, which is now part of Bank of America Corp., said the company will respond to the lawsuit "at the appropriate time."

"Countrywide values its customer relationships, and the security of their financial information is a top priority," Norton said.

The New Jersey couple also are seeking an injunction to stop companies that bought the information from using it and an order requiring them to either return or destroy the information.

The lawsuits stem from the arrest of Rene Rebollo Jr., 36, of Pasadena, Calif., a former senior analyst for Countrywide, and Wahid Siddiqi, 25, of Thousand Oaks, Calif. Federal investigators said Rebollo used a flash drive to download data from about 20,000 customers a week for two years from 2006 through August 2008.

Rebollo is alleged to have sold the information to Siddiqi for $500 and earned a combined $50,000, federal investigators said. Siddiqi pleaded guilty on Dec. 9 to 10 counts of fraud and admitted to selling the information to third parties, including an undercover FBI agent."

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The experienced Kentucky class action attorneys of Franklin Gray & White represent victims of the personal information security breach by Countrywide. If you or a loved one believe that your personal information may have been part of the Countrywide security breach, please contact Matthew L. White (mwhite@franklingrayandwhite.com) of Franklin Gray & White, as soon as possible, for a free consultation. For more information about the Franklin Gray & White firm, please see here.

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