"We get information from a number of different sources, including credit bureaus, so that our marketing offers are as effective as possible," she said.

So was the mid-December timing of Adams' gold card offers and the state's participation in MATRIX just a coincidence? "It would not be possible to receive an offer within a week of (American Express) receiving a database," she said.

Adams said Flowers told him during a Friday conversation the state would subpoena American Express records to determine how it got the restricted information.

Seisint came under increased scrutiny last August when its founder, Hank Asher, was pressured to resign from the board of directors. Florida authorities questioned his criminal background during contract negotiations with the company, according to reports in the St. Petersburg Times, Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel and Associated Press in Florida.

In 1987, Asher was granted immunity from prosecution and named an unindicted conspirator in a drug smuggling case involving the importation of $150 million in cocaine. The multi-millionaire has admitted publicly that he smuggled drugs in 1981 and 1982, according to media accounts.

In 1992, Asher founded DataBase Technologies, which later merged with ChoicePoint, the company hired by Florida to "scrub" voter rolls of convicted felons not entitled to vote. Florida subsequently removed 8,000 names identified by the company from voter rolls, only to find out later the 8,000 names were actually eligible voters.

In 1999, the FBI and U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration canceled contracts with DBT Online, a high-tech company Asher founded, because of Asher's criminal history. Asher and Seisint have been accused of stealing DBT technology that the Florida Department of Public Safety is attempting to purchase from Seisint, the company hired to manage and build the MATRIX database for Homeland Security and state law enforcement in 14 states participating in the pilot program (six states have since dropped out, citing financial and privacy concerns).

Ironically, ChoicePoint refused to bid on the MATRIX project, citing the lack of privacy safeguards, Associated Press reported.

MATRIX has been criticized by conservative groups and the American Civil Liberties Union for its potential to violate individual privacy. And critics say it is an end run around federal laws first implemented in the 1970s that prohibit the federal government from domestic spying activities, including collecting dossiers on law-abiding citizens. The entities involved in MATRIX are state governments and private entities and therefore may not be subject to the 1974 Privacy Act.