Thaindian News

By Ranjan Bhaduri
Kentucky, Aug 28, (THAINDIAN NEWS) Bank of America Corp has finally resolved the biggest reported data theft case as it has reported. It has said that it will offer identity theft insurance, reimbursement for losses and free credit monitoring to 17 million consumers who used to be the customers of Countrywide Financial mortgage. The latter was acquired by the bank a few years earlier. The development will resolve 30 lawsuits that had been filed in the last two years. The prime accused in the Countrywide Financial data theft case Rene L. Rebollo has pleaded not guilty though. His trial will take place on Oct.19. He used to work for the subprime division of Countrywide and was accused of stealing confidential customer data and selling it to workers of other mortgage services. He faces a number of charges including disclosing Social Security numbers and fraud.

A federal judge approved the settlement in Kentucky. When Rene L. Rebollo was arrested Bank of America offered credit monitoring for free to almost 2.5 million customers of the then Countrywide. It is not known how many people affected by the data theft scam would apply for reimbursement. The affected people would get up to $50,000 for each instances of identity theft. However, they would have to prove that they lost something important and have not received compensation already.

The judge gave the settlement a thumb up saying it is the best possible solution to the numerous data theft case related to countrywide. A bank of America spokesperson named Shirley Norton said that the company vehemently refutes the charges of wrongdoing and involvement in the scam.