Newark, New Jersey - A New York man was sentenced Tuesday to 60 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release for participating in a scheme that used secret card-reading devices and pinhole cameras on various New Jersey bank locations to steal at least $390,141.
Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito for the District of New Jersey, Special Agent in Charge Brian Michael of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), Newark, and Special Agent in Charge Thomas P. Baker of the U.S. Secret Service, Boston Field Office, made the announcement.
Bogdan Rusu, 39, of Queens, New York, previously pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Esther Salas to an information charging him with one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud. Judge Salas imposed the sentence today in Newark federal court.
According to court documents and statements made in court, from August 2014 to November 2016, Rusu and others engaged in a widespread bank fraud conspiracy that targeted various banks in Massachusetts, New York and New Jersey. Rusu and others captured payment card account information from customers as they accessed their accounts through automatic teller machines (ATMs) and then used that information to steal money from the customers’ bank accounts. As part of the scheme, Rusu and others installed devises on ATMs in New Jersey and elsewhere to illegally obtain customer account information, including account numbers and personal identification numbers. Rusu and others would then transfer the illegally obtained information to counterfeit payment cards and use those counterfeit cards to steal money from the accounts. 11 other defendants charged in this scheme have pleaded guilty.
HSI, along with special agents of the U.S. Secret Service, Boston Field Office; Massachusetts State Police; TD Bank Fraud Investigations; East Longmeadow, Massachusetts, Police Department; Cambridge, Massachusetts, Police Department; Ludlow, Massachusetts, Police Department, and Medford, Massachusetts, Police Department, with assistance from the victim banks, conducted the investigation. The Middlesex County, Massachusetts, District Attorney’s Office; U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Eastern District of New York and U.S. Attorney’s Office of the District of Massachusetts, Springfield Division assisted in the investigation and prosecution.
Trial Attorney Marianne Shelvey of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division Organized Crime and Gang Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Angelica Sinopole of the U.S. Attorney’s Office Criminal Division Organized Crime and Gangs Unit in Newark prosecuted the case.
