State sues former title company executive over dumped records
Pacific Business News (Honolulu) - March 21, 2007
Stephen Marn, who paid a handyman to take boxes of confidential records to the dump, has been formally accused of violating Hawaii consumer protection laws.
The Hawaii Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs sued the Hawaii Kai resident Wednesday after its Office of Consumer Protection investigated.
The boxes, found by PBN Editor Jim Kelly in a Niu Valley recycling dumpster, contained thousands of documents on hundreds of Hawaii residents, including names, addresses, Social Security numbers and other personal information (see the original exclusive report on this.)
Marn was the president of Fidelity Escrow Services Corp., which went out of business in 2004. Marn told PBN he paid his handyman to take the 39 boxes of documents to the dump. The handyman said he took them to the recycling bin.
The DCCA alleges that Marn broke not one but, several state laws, including the new "Dumpster-diving law" that impels companies to dispose of records by burning or shredding them. It calls for fines of up to $2,500 per violation.
"(Marn) failed to employ reasonable and appropriate security measures to protect the personal information contained in the documents," DCCA said Wednesday.
"This security breach was extremely serious," said Stephen Levins, executive director of the Office of Consumer Protection. He suggested that anyone who used Fidelity Escrow Services Corp. to buy property between 1996 and 2000 watch for signs of identity theft.
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