Memo to hackers: If you have to steal an identity in the monster Equifax breach, start with Richard “Rick” Smith.

Smith is the Equifax chairman and CEO who resigned Tuesday in the wake of his credit-reporting agency’s mammoth embarrassment — 143 million accounts compromised.

Also seen as shameful: What Smith is taking to the bank on his way out.

“Regulatory filings indicate [Smith] could receive an $18.4 million retirement benefits package, but a decision about how much he will receive will be deferred until Equifax’s board of directors finishes its review of the breach,” said Robert Weissman, president of the national nonprofit consumer advocacy group Public Citizen.

“Amazingly, at this very moment, Senate Republicans are plotting to aid and abet more financial industry rip-offs and misdeeds, by overturning a U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau rule protecting consumers’ right to join together in class action lawsuits to hold financial wrongdoers accountable.”

Zerohedge.com gave the disgraced CEO some credit, though: “Smith took the helm of Equifax 12 years ago and transformed it from what he once described as a staid, slow-growing credit-reporting company into a data giant.”

Giant criticism followed:

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