ID Theft by T.O. Man Leads to Class Action Lawsuit

Countrywide Financial, which was once the country’s largest mortgage and home lender, will pay for millions of customers left at risk of identity theft after an employee stole user information.

The lawsuit stems from the arrest of Rene Rebollo, a former Countrywide senior analyst, and Wadhid Siddiqi, of Thousand Oaks.

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 then sold the information to Siddiqi for $500 and earned a combined $50,000, federal investigators said. Siddiqi pleaded guilty in 2009 to 10 counts of fraud and admitted to selling the information to third parties, including an undercover FBI agent.

Rebollo has pleaded not guilty to a new indictment handed up in May and is awaiting trial.

A federal judge in Louisville, KY, recently approved the settlement under which Countrywide, now owned by Bank of America, will provide free credit monitoring for up to 17 million people whose financial information may have been compromised. This group includes anyone who used a Countrywide mortgage service before July, 2008.

Shirley Norton, a spokeswoman for Bank of America, said the company denies all allegations of wrongdoing or liability in the class action case.

Earlier this month, Countrywide agreed to pay $600 million to settle another class action lawsuit by pension funds and investors who alleged executives misled investors about risky lending practices.