FBI Is Said to Be Probing Theft of Credit Data by Perot Camp

The FBI is investigating charges that Ross Perot’s presidential campaign used stolen computer codes to obtain credit reports on some campaign workers, a newspaper said Friday.

The FBI refused to confirm the investigation, but the Dallas Morning News quoted Perot campaign coordinators in several states and officials at Equifax, an Atlanta credit reporting company.

“I have talked to the FBI several times,” said Bob Penn, a former Perot worker in the Dallas campaign headquarters. “They’re trying to put together a case.”

Penn said in a CBS-TV interview in October that he had observed campaign staffers in Dallas trying to break into credit reporting agencies’ computers.

The Secret Service and Federal Trade Commission also are investigating the allegations, the campaign workers told the paper. Neither agency nor Perot was available for comment Friday.

He previously has acknowledged his campaign hired private investigators to check backgrounds of some campaign workers who had been accused of misusing campaign money.

Six former Perot petition-drive coordinators in Maryland, Ohio and Missouri told the paper that their credit reports were pulled without their knowledge.

Equifax said at least 17 credit files of former Perot campaign workers may have been accessed illegally in April and May.

Some Equifax reports were obtained using the security code of Orix Consumer Leasing in Secaucus, N.J., officials of the two companies said.

Orix never requested credit reports on Perot volunteers, said company spokesman Glen York. Officials at Orix and Equifax have said they believe Orix’s security codes were stolen.