TD Ameritrade close to settling data theft lawsuit

As part of a proposed settlement, Ameritrade agreed to pay nearly $1.9 million in legal fees and cover the cost of one year of anti-spam service for the victims. Ameritrade also promised to better protect customer data.

The settlement's terms could change. U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker in San Francisco rejected the proposed settlement until he knew more about the basis for the amount of legal fees and about the value of what Ameritrade's customers would receive.

"I think this is an extremely good settlement for the class," said lawyer Scott A. Kamber, who filed one of the two lawsuits that were combined into the class action. "This is a model of a consumer settlement which has benefits for the class as well as the company."

The lawyers for the other plaintiffs did not immediately respond to a message left Wednesday.

Anyone who held an Ameritrade account or provided an e-mail address to the company before Sept. 14 could benefit from the lawsuit. The database that was hacked included information on 6.2 million people.

The plaintiffs in the lawsuit said they received unwanted e-mail ads about certain stocks. The ads appeared to be designed to manipulate the value of thinly traded stocks.

Ameritrade spokeswoman Kim Hillyer said no cases of identity theft have been linked to the data theft, which was revealed last September.

Ameritrade hired ID Analytics Inc., which has expertise in identity theft, to help investigate. ID Analytics checked Ameritrade's customer data against other databases three times and found no evidence of organized identity theft.

"We believe that the settlement is fair, it's reasonable, and it provides a lot of benefits to people in the class to help them with the issue that came up because of the spam," Hillyer said.