Countrywide insider stole mortgage applicants' data, FBI says

The former employee and a suspected accomplice are arrested. As many as 2 million customers' information was allegedly targeted.

By E. Scott Reckard and Joseph Menn, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers

The FBI on Friday arrested a former Countrywide Financial Corp. employee and another man in an alleged scheme to steal and sell sensitive personal information, including Social Security numbers, of as many as 2 million mortgage applicants.

The breach in security, which occurred over a two-year period though July, was one of the largest in years, experts said.

The insider was identified as Rene L. Rebollo Jr., 36, who had worked as a senior financial analyst at Full Spectrum Lending, Countrywide's subprime lending division. He was arrested at his home in Pasadena and charged with unauthorized access to a financial institution's computers.

Authorities also arrested Wahid Siddiqi, 25, at his home in Thousand Oaks. Authorities alleged that he was a reseller of Countrywide data.