Thread: Two admit roles in ATM-skimming ring that stole $5 million from area banks

Romanians living here illegally and looting the citizenry -

Two admit roles in ATM-skimming ring that stole $5 million from area banks

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 2013
BY PETER J. SAMPSON
STAFF WRITER
THE RECORD

Two Romanian citizens admitted their roles in a ring that stole $5 million from bank branches in Bergen and Passaic counties and across the tri-state area, pleading guilty on Wednesday to installing ATM-card readers and tiny cameras to capture customer account data.

Dezso Gyapias, 29, and Ioan Leusca, 30, both of Queens, N.Y., pleaded guilty to one count each of conspiring to commit bank fraud and aggravated identity theft during separate hearings in federal court in Newark.

They face a mandatory minimum term of two years and up to 30 years in prison when they are sentenced by U.S. District Judge William J. Martini. Sentencing was set for Feb. 20.

Dressed in yellow prison jumpsuits, their wrists and ankles shackled, Gyapias and Leusca spoke through a Romanian interpreter as they acknowledged their roles in a crime wave that spanned two months, ending with their arrests on Jan. 13 in Great Neck, Long Island.

They admitted to Martini that they devised a scheme to defraud Citibank by installing “skimming” devices that secretly recorded the identity and account numbers encoded on the magnetic strips of debit and credit cards used to access funds at ATMs. They also placed hidden pinhole cameras to record customers as they entered their personal identification numbers, or PINs, on ATM keypads, they said.

After capturing a quantity of customer data, the card-reading device and camera were retrieved and the stolen account numbers and PINs were transferred to blank ATM cards that were used to withdraw funds from the compromised accounts, they said.

Gyapias and Leusca, who have been held without bail since their arrest, hit bank branches throughout New Jersey, New York and Connecticut causing losses of more than $985,000, authorities said.
A surveillance camera at a Citibank branch in Englewood caught them using counterfeit cards to withdraw tens of thousands of dollars from compromised accounts in December, authorities said.

The pair were originally charged in a federal criminal complaint with two other Romanians, Constantin Ginga, 53, and Marius Cotiga, 35, also of Queens.

Ginga and Cotiga were arrested in Englewood in January after investigators from Citibank, looking into complaints of compromised accounts, saw a man acting suspiciously at a Citibank ATM at 89 Engle St. and called police.

Ginga was arrested in the bank while Cotiga was found nearby in a rented van containing 80 fraudulent gift cards, $10,000 in cash and a number of disguises, including wigs and mustaches, police said. Ginga has since pleaded guilty to bank fraud conspiracy and aggravated identity theft and is awaiting sentencing on Dec. 18.

The charges against the four Romanians grew out of a larger investigation into skimming schemes that have cost a number of banks in the tri-state area a total of $5 million stolen from their customer accounts over the past two years.

Six other Romanian nationals have been charged in the wider scheme, including the alleged ring leaders, Marius Vintila, 31, and Bogdan Radu, 30.

Vintila, who was arrested in Sweden in September, and Radu, who is in custody in New Jersey, designed and created the skimming devices and pinhole cameras and recruited individuals, including Leusca and Gyapias, to install them on bank ATMs, authorities said.

http://www.northjersey.com/englewood....html?page=all

FEBRUARY 21, 2014
NEWARK, NJ
Queens men sentenced for $1 million ATM skimming scheme


NEWARK, N.J. — Two Romanian natives now residing in Queens, N.Y., were sentenced to nearly five years in federal prison Thursday for their roles in a scheme that stole $985,000 from bank customers throughout New Jersey, New York and Connecticut by installing secret card-reading devices on ATMs that stole account information when customers swiped their cards. The prison sentences follow an investigation by the Newark field office of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the U.S. Secret Service.
Ioan Leusca, 30, aka Ionel Spinu, and Dezso Gyapias, 29, aka Valentin Folea, were each sentenced to 57 months in federal prison by U.S. District Judge William J. Martini. In addition to prison time, both men were ordered to serve two years supervised release and to pay $985,000 in restitution.
Leusca and Gyapias previously pleaded guilty to one felony count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft. Both men have been held without bail since their arrests Jan. 13, 2013, after being charged by New Jersey U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman.
According to court documents, Leusca and Gyapias admitted they and their fellow conspirators installed skimmers and pinhole cameras at bank ATMs. The devices were installed on multiple ATMs in New Jersey and Connecticut. Each skimmer, an electronic device, would read and record identity and account information contained in the magnetic strip of a customer's ATM card. The pinhole camera secretly recorded bank customers' keystrokes as they entered their personal identification numbers.
Leusca and Gyapias admitted as part of their guilty pleas they and other conspirators went back to collect the devices containing the recorded information, loaded the stolen customer account and identification information onto blank ATM cards, then used those cards to steal $985,000 from Citibank ATMs in New Jersey, New York and Connecticut.
The charges leading to their sentences arose from a larger investigation into a skimming scheme that targeted customers in the tri-state area in 2012 and early 2013. Together, the schemes cost a number of banks $5 million in cash stolen from customer accounts.
Eight other individuals, all Romanian nationals who lived in Queens, are charged in connection to the wider scheme. Seven of those individuals are now in custody. The alleged leaders of the scheme, Marius Vintila, 31, and Bogdan Radu, 31, designed and created the actual skimming devices and pinhole cameras and recruited individuals, including Leusca and Gyapias, to install them on bank ATMs.
Vintila allegedly used an alias to rent multiple self-storage units, in which he stored the contents of an entire skimming operation, including skimming devices, pinhole cameras, super glue, tape, SD cards, batteries, computers, molds, fraudulent ATM cards and cash proceeds. Radu allegedly taught co-conspirators how to install the skimming devices, and used an alias to move skimming devices and cash proceeds overseas.
Vintila and Radu were charged by criminal complaint July 10, 2013.
Constantin Ginga, 53, Marius Cotiga, 35, Constantin Pendus, 30, Emil Revesz, 30, Florin Apetrei, 18, and another individual charged as “first name unknown, last name unknown,” aka “Chioru,” allegedly installed the devices designed by Vintila and Radu onto bank ATMs and used fraudulent ATM cards to steal millions of dollars. They then used hats, jackets, scarves and sunglasses to disguise themselves while installing the devices and while using the cards to withdraw money.
Ginga, Cotiga, Leusca, Gyapias, Pendus, Revesz, Apetrei and Radu are in custody in New Jersey being held without bail. Ginga previously pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit bank fraud and aggravated identity theft and awaits sentencing Feb. 26. On Sept. 24, 2013, Vintila was apprehended in Sweden and extradited to the United States earlier this month.
Vintila was charged in a six-count indictment issued Tuesday with conspiracy to commit bank fraud, aggravated identity theft, conspiracy to possess 15 or more counterfeit access devices, possession of 15 or more counterfeit access devices, conspiracy to possess access device-making equipment, and possession of access device-making equipment. The individual known as “Chioru” remains at large.

http://www.ice.gov/news/releases/1402/140221newark.htm