ShareThisStolen personal information on more than 3 million student loan borrowers was recovered during the discovery in Minneapolis of two safes containing CDs and floppy discs, state investigators said Friday.
The safes were stolen sometime over the March 20-21 weekend from the Oakdale headquarters of Education Credit Management Corp. (ECMC), a nonprofit that services and insures student loans, according to the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA).
The safes were found about 48 hours later in Minneapolis, the agency said.
According to the BCA, the personal information on the digital media does not appear to have been compromised.
Stolen was information on 3.3 million customers, including names, addresses, dates of birth and Social Security numbers. No bank account or other financial information was included.
According to investigators:
The safes had been opened and the CDs and floppy discs, still in their original packaging, were found nearby. Investigators are confident that all the CDs and floppy discs -- about 650 in all -- have been recovered.
The safes and digital media have been in the Minneapolis Police Department's evidence room since March 22. It was only recently that the evidence was examined and connected with the Oakdale robbery.
Investigators have identified a suspect in the case. That person has not been charged in this case, but is in custody on an unrelated matter. The suspect is not a current or former employee of ECMC. Investigators say there may be additional suspects.
The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension lab in St. Paul is looking at the safes and their contents for additional evidence. When that analysis is complete, the U.S. Department of Education office of inspector general will review the media as a precaution to definitively determine whether the personal information was compromised.
CMC is one of the top 10 student loan guaranty agencies in the country, according to its website.
ECMC expects to lose much of its business as a guarantor of student loans under a law signed by President Barack Obama soon after the theft was reported. The law ends government guarantees and subsidies of private bank loans for college tuition. Instead, the government will expand its program of direct lending to students.
ECMC, founded 16 years ago, insures about $11 billion in student loans. Much of that activity will be taken over by the government, which will back its own student loans. While ECMC can't issue new loan guarantees under the government program, it will continue to insure current borrowers, who have an average repayment schedule of 10 years.
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
Must credit Minneapolis Star Tribune
