Story Created: May 12, 2010 at 6:45 PM CDT

Story Updated: May 13, 2010 at 8:00 PM CDT

The indictments were handed up in U.S. District Court, Davenport, and unsealed Thursday. The nine people worked at Vangent, a Department of Education contractor in Coralville.

Voting records in Johnson County show that four of those indicted are registered as Democrats, and two are registered as Republicans. Three of those indicted — Anna C. Rhodes, 32; Mercedes Costoyas, 53; and Sandra Teague, 54 – were not registered to vote in Johnson County.

The six who were registered all voted in the 2008 general election. Those registered as Democrats are: John P. Phommivong, 29; Patrick E. Roan, 51; Andrew J. Lage, 54; and Julie L. Kline, 38. The two registered as Republicans are Lisa L. Torney, 49, and Gary N. Grenell, 58.

All nine are charged with exceeding computer access. Each faces up to a year in prison and a $100,000 fine, if convicted.

A Vangent company spokeswoman based in Arlington, Va., in a statement today said the nine employees, not Vangent, were the subject of the investigation.

The statement from Eileen Cassidy Rivera, vice president of communications and investor relations, said “An investigation identified a number of Vangent employees, among others, who inappropriately accessed student loan records. The Vangent employees violated Vangent’s security policies and were promptly terminated from the company in June 2009. Vangent was not the subject of the investigation.”

Officials say that between July 26, 2007, and March 13, 2009, the defendants accessed the records while working for Vangent.

Arraignment on the charges is set for 2 p.m. May 24 in Davenport. The case was investigated by the Department of Education, Office of Inspector General.

One of the women named in the federal indictment says she didn’t do it.

“I don’t know what the others did, but I know that I did not do it,” Sandra Teague, 54, of Iowa City, said Wednesday night.

The government did not identify the Department of Education contractor in Coralville. But Teague said she and four others named in the indictment had worked at Vangent, 2450 Oakdale Blvd. She did not know about the other four.

Vangent contracts to handle incoming calls for a variety of agencies, including calls on federal student aid for the U.S. Department of Education and calls regarding Medicare and Medicaid for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Teague said she worked for Vangent for 10 years before she was dismissed “with cause” in, she recalls, August 2008 and walked from the building by company officials.

“The company never told me the reason I was dismissed,” said Teague, who is now enrolled in classes at the University of Iowa.

Teague said she found out Wednesday that a grand jury had returned an indictment against her for looking up the federal student loan records of Obama when he was a candidate for president.

While working at Vangent, Teague said, she helped people complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, form.

Teague said in order to do her job, she had different ID numbers for each database and different IDs for different versions of the same database. The ID numbers would change every 30 days, she said.

“I had seven different numbers, and I couldn’t remember them all, all the time,” she said.

She said she wrote the ID numbers on a sticky-note and attached it to the inside of her desk drawer.

“It was assumed that the building had better controlled access, but it turns out it wasn’t,” she said.

Teague said she was questioned about the record breach by special agents for the Department of Education and Office of the Inspector General. After the interview, Teague said, an agent suggested a better place to keep her ID numbers.

Teague said she thought at the time the matter was resolved. What gave her the most relief, she added, was that the agent told her she wasn’t checked into the building when computers indicate Obama’s loan records were accessed.

Teague said she only found out Obama had federal student loans after someone causally mentioned it at a department meeting.

Teague said she was planning her wedding at the time the records were accessed and didn’t have any reason to look up Obama’s records.

“I didn’t even pay attention to the election,” she said. “I didn’t have time.”

5 Responses to “9 more innocent victims of ObamaFraudGate. Obama, unseal all of your records, let us see if we paid for you to go to school as a foreign exchange student from Kenya. Come clean or resign and go back to Mombasa, Kenya.”

1. Leonard McCauley
   May 19th, 2010 @ 9:33 am

   I will have to see what these people allegedly hacked before I would ever consider their Guilt. Not only that, but I would have to see the evidence and the results before issuing an Arrest Warrant.

   What is going on? Is this back door discovery? Will the evidence finally become Public Record?

2. Judith Bailey
   May 19th, 2010 @ 12:40 pm

   Americans call your Senators. We do not want Kagan for Supreme Court Judge.

3. Veritas
   May 19th, 2010 @ 2:30 pm

   The Conservative Blogs are going with the report that Obama grandmother Dunham had access to DEAD PEOPLE’S SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBERS.

   She was purportedly “volunteering” at the Oahu Circuit Court Probate Department and could harvest for Barry (and who knows for whom else) all the Social Security Numbers he wanted and/or needed for all the poor stiffs whose records came her way!

   You are right, Dr Taitz, AMERICA IS IN CRISIS..the courts MUST ACT!

4. Henry Tisdale
   May 21st, 2010 @ 5:34 am

   So what if some Americans tried to find something that showed Obamanation was ineligible to be a nominee for president? The democrat party did nothing to prove his eligibility. In fact, Rep Barney Frank let the cat out of the bag when he openly suggested that the democrats bring in a foreigner to run for our highest office. Hell, he already knew Obama was not even qualified to be mayor of Hoboken, N.J. Frank was willing to toss the constitution aside if a “foreigner” brings the Dems a victory. So what’s new, Henry?

   After reading the recent investigation posted 2 weeks ago, we now know that Nancy Pelosi was the real culprit in bringing a foreigner to the Dem Party to win the presidency. Ms Pelosi was the key culprit in fraudulently signing Obama’s elgibility statement for the party. In fact, she may have had her own ulterior motives, which I will not go into,

   Secretary Taitz, I have a stupendous idea which I will write to you later. I feel sooo good about this one, I will pick up the filing and other court fees, your travel fees, and any other fees involved if you accept my idea. OK?

5. Henry Tisdale
   May 21st, 2010 @ 5:40 am

   Oh yes, and since I failed completely in trying to find a golden goose, I will send $500 more to your campaign. Of course my wife will shoot me, but hey, I will be dying for Lady Liberty, eh?

   Seriously, one must show another how deep the water is before one can ask the other to follow him across. Hmmm not a bad metaphor, is it?

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