Last two sentenced for illegally viewing Obama loans

(AP) - The last two of nine defendants to be sentenced for illegally viewing President Barack Obama's student loan records in Iowa have been sentenced to probation.

Sandra Teague and Andrew Lage, both 54 and from Iowa City, were sentenced Monday in U.S. District Court in Davenport. They were among nine people charged with exceeding authorized computer access for viewing Obama's student loan records while he was a candidate, president-elect or president.

Eight received probation. One was given credit for time served and sentenced to community service.

Teague's sentence of two years probation was the toughest. The others received just one year probation.

Teague's attorney, Matthew Leddin, said the stiffer sentence was likely because she was found guilty by a jury, whereas the others all pleaded guilty.

"I know Miss Teague and I are disappointed by the jury's verdict but considering the verdict this was the best possible sentence," Leddin said.

The charge carried a possible penalty of one year in prison and a $100,000 fine.

Leddin declined to discuss why Teague or the others viewed Obama's records, but attorneys for some of the other defendants have said they viewed student loan records belonging to Obama and other celebrities during down time at work and that there was no malicious intent.

The nine are former employees in the Coralville office of Vangent, Inc., a U.S. Department of Education contractor.

Eileen Rivera, a company spokeswoman, said Vangent requires employees to take annual ethics and security training, which covers appropriate use of customer data.

"Obviously, these particular employees chose to ignore the training they were given," she said.

The company has since taken additional steps to increase employee training, including more frequent training on information security, privacy and the use of government data, and steps to help supervisors better identify abuses. "We've really stepped it up and we've beefed up the frequency and specificity of training so we feel, that while there is never a guarantee this won't happen again, we've taken very strong measures to avoid against this happening again," Rivera said.