Thread: Foreigner sentenced for skimming millions from New Jersey ATMs

Man sentenced for skimming millions from New Jersey ATMs

Katie Park , @kathspark4:19 p.m. EST December 13, 2016

The skimming scheme targeted multiple commercial banks, defrauded the institutions out of at least $5 million and swindled thousands of customers in at least New Jersey, New York, Connecticut and Florida, authorities said.


(Photo: Gene J. Puskar, AP)


A Romanian national from one of the largest ATM skimming schemes ever uncovered and prosecuted by United States officials was sentenced Tuesday to nearly 5 years in prison for setting up card-reading devices all over New Jersey and numerous other states, authorities said.

Robert Mate, 31, who also went by the monikers "Marcel Varga" and "Chioru," conspired with 16 other men — all of whom have been charged — for conspiring to commit bank fraud in the first degree, said U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman, who represents New Jersey. Fishman said Mate was arrested in Spain and compelled to stand trial in the United States for his crime.

Public records do not indicate if Mate lived in New Jersey while he was committing bank fraud.

The scheme bilked $7,397,270 from banks' customers, said U.S. Attorney Deputy Public Affairs Officer Will Skaggs.

Skaggs said Mate is "jointly responsible" for paying that sum back as part of his restitution.

The conspiracy targeted banks in Monmouth and Ocean counties, Skaggs said, as well as banks in Essex, Middlesex, Passaic and Union counties.

Fishman said Angelo Servidio, a Nutley attorney, represented Mate.

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The skimming scheme targeted Citibank, TD Bank, Wells Fargo and multiple other commercial banks, defrauded the institutions out of at least $5 million and swindled thousands of customers in New Jersey, New York, Connecticut and Florida, Fishman said.

Mate, who assumed a high-level role in the wide-reaching ATM skimming scheme, collected bank information through recording devices when customers used ATMs, created fraudulent bank cards and unlawfully withdrew millions of dollars from various accounts, Fishman said.

At least two other men involved with the scheme — Marius Vintila, 34, also of Romania, and Bogdan Radu, designed and assembled "sophisticated card-reader devices and pinhole camera panels" that read and stored customers' bank information and PIN numbers, Fishman said.

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Mate installed the devices onto ATMs and removed them a few days later when the gadgets had collected bank information, Fishman said.

Mate and others used the information loaded onto the devices to create bank cards and stole millions of dollars, Fishman said.

Vintila, the ringleader of the scheme, was convicted in 2015.

One member of the group — Ionut Vasile Ciurba-Stana, 30 — remains at large, Fishman said.

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Mate must pay $7,397,270 in restitution and adhere to five years of supervised release after serving 57 months in prison, Fishman said.

^{U.S. Secret Service and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement} engineered the investigation that led to the sentencing, Fishman said.

Katie Park: 908-801-4853; kpark@gannettnj.com

http://www.app.com/story/news/crime/...atms/95378968/

Is it just me, but isn't it time we really look at who and what is coming into this country?

I mean don't we have enough home-grown miscreants cheating us? -
must we import more?