Suspect paid for bank data in 1997

The Bergen County man accused of paying bank employees in exchange for customers' financial records was arrested eight years ago in a similar scheme involving a bank employee in Monmouth County — a crime for which he received probation, officials said Thursday.

Orazio Lembo Jr., now 35, pleaded guilty to third-degree commercial bribery for paying an employee of what was then Fleet Bank in Farmingdale in 1997 for information about customers' bank accounts. Lembo was sentenced in 1998 to three years probation and a $5,000 fine, court records show.

"We hope people learn from their past conduct, and clearly that has not been the case," Monmouth County Prosecutor John Kaye said. "It seems what he has learned is how to do it better and larger."

Hackensack police charged Lembo, a state worker and seven bank employees in April with stealing financial information from as many as 670,000 bank customers and selling it to collection agencies.

The charges prompted the banks from which records were taken — Commerce Bank, Wachovia Bank, Bank of America and PNC Bank — to notify customers that information about their accounts might have been compromised.

Authorities said Lembo was selling the bank records to collection agencies. Agencies typically rely on debtors to truthfully tell them how much their assets are worth. With the help of Lembo, the agencies could have used the information to determine how much the debtors had in their bank accounts — and whether they could afford to pay their bills.

Authorities said the agencies gave Lembo a list of debtors. Lembo, of Hackensack, then paid bank employees $10 for each customer account they turned over, authorities said. They said Lembo made millions of dollars off the scheme.

None of the banks involved has reported any missing money from customer accounts as a direct result of Lembos's actions, a police investigator said earlier this week. But consumer advocates are calling on the government and banks to do a better job protecting private information.

"I think we should be worried these large banks did not detect this criminal behavior by their own employees," said Beth Givens, director of the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, a consumer rights group in San Diego.

Ralph Lilore, assistant prosecutor in Bergen County, said he was aware of Lembo's previous arrest in Monmouth County, but he declined to comment because the current investigation is continuing.

Monmouth County officials said Lembo owned a debt collection agency in 1997, when he contacted a Fleet Bank employee he found over the Internet; Lembo had a list of names, addresses and Social Security numbers of debtors from whom he was trying to collect.

The employee alerted his managers and worked with police to conduct a sting, Edward Quigley, director of the economic crime unit in Monmouth County, said.

How did Lembo walk away with only probation eight years ago? The punishment for financial crimes depends on the amount of money involved, Quigley said. Because Lembo was arrested with less than $75,000 changing hands, he was charged with third-degree commercial bribery, which rarely results in jail time.

"That's the only time I've ever seen it," Quigley said. "It was the first and only time I've heard of anybody doing this."

What are people saying about mortgages today:

Rates on 30-year mortgages edged down last week to a seven-month low. Mortgage-giant Freddie Mac reported Thursday that 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages fell to 6.3 percent, down slightly from 6.31 percent two weeks ago. It put rates at the lowest level since they were at 6.24 percent the first week of March.

Bank of Hawaii, Central Pacific Bank, Territorial Savings Bank and Wells Fargo Home Mortgages all cut their 30-year mortgage rates to 5.75 percent this week.

Most people think of a mortgage as a means to an end. After all, you buy a house, not a home loan. But a mortgage is much more than the path to homeownership. It is a financial instrument that must be managed, just like any other financial investment.