AG's office sues Brownsville business

McALLEN — The Texas Attorney General's office is suing the owner of a Brownsville-based tax preparation service for allegedly leaving several boxes filled with his customer's personal information in a Dumpster.

A McAllen-based business settled a separate lawsuit with the AG's office last week for exposing their customers to potential identity theft by not properly disposing sensitive personal information, the AG's office said in a press release last week.

"Identity theft is one of the nation's fastest growing and costly criminal enterprises," Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott said in the release. "These cases all involve companies that failed to properly dispose of materials containing their customers' sensitive personal information."

The allegations against Juan Nino, a licensed Brownsville tax practitioner, surfaced in early May when a local TV news reporter detailed how reams of business records with full names, dates of birth, Social Security numbers and other personal financial information were in a Dumpster behind Nino's office at 335 W. Elizabeth St.

Nino could not be reached for comment and the phone number to his office has been disconnected.

He is facing three separate violations of the Texas business code for failing to destroy the documents.

The owner of McAllen-based B&F Finance, a financial management services business, also settled with the attorney general's office, agreeing to pay $20,000 in fines. Lake Dallas-based Victory Management Services LLC, is also expected to implement procedures to destroy records and a new employee training program.

An investigation by the attorney general's office in April 2007 uncovered documents with sensitive personal information in a Dumpster behind the B&F Finance office at the 1200 block of Erie Street in McAllen, said Dirk Fillpot, a spokesman for the AG's office.

A message left with a secretary at Victory's office was not returned. A separate call to the company's lawyer was also not returned.

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Sean Gaffney covers business, the economy and general assignments for The Monitor. He can be reached at (956) 683-4434.