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Ex-Analyst To Plead Guilty To Selling Customer Data

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By ELAINE SILVESTRINI, The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 16, 2007

TAMPA - A former analyst for a St. Petersburg check authorizing company has agreed to plead guilty to stealing more than 8.4 million consumer records that were sold to direct marketers.

William G. Sullivan worked for Certegy Check Services, a subsidiary of Fidelity National Information Services, which announced the theft in July but said 2.3 million records were involved. The company says no data were used for identity theft or other financial fraud.

Sullivan was paid more than $580,000 for the information, according to a plea agreement signed by Sullivan and filed in U.S. District Court.

Sullivan is scheduled to enter his guilty plea Nov. 28 before Magistrate Mark Pizzo.

Defense attorney Jeffrey Brown said his client did "an incredibly stupid thing." Brown said the money Sullivan was paid has been spent. "It's just gone," Brown said.

Sullivan faces a sentence of up to five years in prison but likely would receive less in exchange for pleading guilty.

The agreement says Sullivan formed a company called S&S Computer Services through which he sold the stolen data to an unnamed co-conspirator. The scheme began at least as far back as 2002, the agreement states.

The co-conspirator sold the information to direct marketers, including Strategia Marketing, also known as Suntasia. Over the course of the conspiracy, Sullivan sold 8,413,806 individuals' information, the agreement states.

Included in that data were records from 461,134 Florida residents, according to the agreement. The document details numbers of records stolen from every state in the nation as well as Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and the District of Colombia.

About 5.6 million records stolen from Certegy contained bank account information, and 1.5 million had credit card information, the plea agreement states. An additional 1.3 million records contained no financial information.

"As a result of this apparent theft, the consumers affected received marketing solicitations from the companies that bought the data," Certegy President Renz Nichols said in July. "We believe that is the extent of any damage to the public."

Certegy, which helps merchants decide whether to accept checks, said it would notify all affected consumers of the theft and has contacted major credit agencies as a precaution.

The broker and the companies did not know they were buying stolen information, Certegy officials said.

Sullivan, a senior level database administrator who had worked for the company for seven years, was fired. Nichols characterized him as a "rogue and dishonest employee." The investigation began in May when Certegy learned that customers were being solicited by telephone and mail. It launched an investigation and was unable to detect any breach of its security systems. It hired a forensic investigator to validate its findings and contacted the U.S. Secret Service, Nichols said.

The agency contacted the marketing companies to question the source of their information and determined it came from a company owned and operated by Sullivan.

Fidelity National Information Services is not related to Fidelity Investments, the nation's largest mutual fund company.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report. Reporter Elaine Silvestrini can be reached at (813) 259-7837 or esilvestrini@tampatrib.com.

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