A Romanian national has been sentenced to 24 months in federal prison and ordered to pay $2,980 in restitution for swiping food and assistance payments from needy individuals in Los Angeles County. Sandu Dumitrescu, 47, pleaded guilty to bank fraud in June. Dumitrescu admitted to installing skimming devices and hidden cameras at ATMs to steal and store account numbers and PINs from cards inserted into the machines. The U.S. Department of Justice reported that the Los Angeles Police Department initiated the investigation into the fraudulent withdrawal of benefits in August 2022, and the U.S. Secret Service later joined as a partner in “Operation Urban Justice.”
Documents filed in federal court reveal that Dumitrescu, along with 14 others, stole over $5 million in funds from victims’ EBT cards. The fraud specifically targeted CalWORKs and CalFresh, programs designed to assist low-income individuals with purchasing food and meeting basic needs. The investigation discovered that the fraudulent withdrawals were conducted using “cloned” cards, such as debit cards or gift cards, which had been encoded with information from legitimate EBT cards.
Court documents allege that some of those involved in the fraudulent scheme obtained stolen EBT card information through skimming devices attached to ATM machines. At the time of his arrest, Dumitrescu was found to be in possession of 17 EBT account numbers.
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