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Bank of America will pay Connecticut $350,000 as part of a settlement for a data breach by Countrywide Financial Corp., which the bank acquired last year, state officials said Thursday. The bank will also provide at least $25,000 to reimburse Connecticut residents forced to pay for freezing and unfreezing their credit reports because of the breach, Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said. The major credit bureaus, Experian, Equifax and TransUnion, charge about $10 to freeze and unfreeze credit reports. Affected consumers will receive about $60 for credit freezes and unfreezes for all three credit bureaus, Blumenthal said. Nearly 30,000 state residents were affected by the nationwide breach, which came to light last August after the FBI arrested a former Countrywide employee on charges of selling personal information, including Social Security numbers, for as many as 2 million loan applicants. To be reimbursed, consumers must send proof of payment for their credit freezes and unfreezes to Blumenthal's office, 110 Sherman St., Hartford, CT 06105, attn: Countrywide Credit Freeze.

The SEC will charge Angelo Mozilo, former chairman and CEO of Countrywide Financial, with insider trading, according to people familiar with the situation. The SEC will also charge the company's former chief operating officer, David Sambol, and former financial chief, Eric Sieracki, with securities fraud for failing to disclose the firm's relaxed lending standards in its 2006 annual report. The charges, which are expected to be announced by the SEC later today, will not be accompanied by any criminal indictments.

Another example of misuse of company data for personal gain.