http://www.cleveland.com/search/index.ssf?/base/isvet/1149852765266930.xml?isvet&coll=2Friday, June 09, 2006
Staff and wire reports
Washington- An Ashtabula veteran who says his June disability check was diverted to a fraudulent bank account fears his problem resulted from the theft of a laptop computer that contained records on 26.5 million U.S. veterans, Rep. Steve LaTourette told Veterans Affairs Secretary Jim Nicholson at a hearing on Capitol Hill.
Nicholson said he didn't know whether 33-year-old Steven Michel's personal data was compromised by the May 3 theft from a VA employee's home and promised to help resolve the case. He called it the "first incidence" of identity theft he's heard of since the security breach.
"If it's not related, it's good news for the VA," LaTourette told Nicholson at the Thursday hearing. "If it is, you've got a big problem."
On June 1, Michel noticed that his $873 disability check hadn't been deposited to his bank account, as it has been for years. The VA told Michel, a Gulf War era veteran with congestive heart failure, that it had deposited his check into a "new" bank account. Michel immediately visited the VA's Cleveland office to correct his records and contacted LaTourette...