Suspicious changes to the credit histories of some Atlanta-area car buyers have led to criminal charges against a former employee of the credit reporting company TransUnion.
In exchange for a series of payments totaling more than $22,000, the employee, who worked at a TransUnion office in Pennsylvania, removed derogatory information and increased available credit amounts for some 80 consumers, the government alleges.
A co-conspirator made several of the payments through cash deposits in Georgia, surveillance photos showed, while another co-conspirator made a payment in North Carolina, according to the complaint. It does not identify the co-conspirators.
An FBI agent wrote that the investigation began in late 2016 after TD Bank investigators noticed an unusually high volume of fraudulent auto loans originating from an unnamed luxury car dealership in the Atlanta area. The bank’s review of the loan files found that the TransUnion credit reports often showed drastically higher credit scores when compared with prior credit reports for the same borrowers.
The bank began working with TransUnion, which determined that then-employee Indira Predeoux made all the changes to the reports, without documenting the reasons. TransUnion also discovered that Predeoux made unsupported changes to credit histories of other consumers, according to the complaint.
The individuals whose records she altered obtained credit cards or lines or credit but often failed to make payments on them, the government says.
Late in 2016, Predeoux abruptly resigned. In June 2017, she told the FBI that she was recruited by the two co-conspirators who ran a credit repair business to make the changes.
Predeoux is facing charges of conspiracy, wire fraud, and aiding and abetting, according to the complaint, filed Nov. 5 in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
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