Romanian Man Sentenced for ATM Card Skimming Scheme

BOSTON - A Romanian man was sentenced today in federal court in Springfield in connection with an ATM card skimming scheme.

Bogdan Mocanu, 31, a Romanian national residing in Queens, N.Y., was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Mark G. Mastroianni to 28 months in prison and ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $342,971 and forfeiture of $342,971. Mocanu will be deported immediately upon completion of his sentence.  On Aug. 30, 2016, Mocanu pleaded guilty to one count each of conspiracy to commit bank fraud, bank fraud and aggravated identity theft. 

From January 2013 until his arrest on July 15, 2015, Mocanu conspired with others to defraud several banks through a massive ATM skimming operation in Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey and elsewhere. Mocanu and others installed skimmer devices and pinhole cameras on ATMs at various banks, which captured the names and account numbers of hundreds of customers as they made transactions at the ATMs.  The pinhole cameras recorded the personal identification numbers of the customers as they entered the information on the ATM keypads. The conspirators then removed the skimmer devices and pinhole cameras and used the account numbers and personal identification numbers to create fraudulent cards; they then used the fraudulent cards to withdraw money from the customers’ bank accounts, resulting in substantial losses to the financial institutions.

Acting United States Attorney William D. Weinreb; David L. Jaffe, Acting Chief of the Justice Department’s Organized Crime and Gang Section; Stephen A. Marks, Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Secret Service, Boston Field Division; and Terence S. Opiola and Matthew J. Etre, Special Agents in Charge of Homeland Security Investigations in Newark and Boston, respectively, made the announcement today. Assistance was provided by the East Longmeadow, Cambridge, and Medford Police Departments, as well as Bank of America’s Security and Fraud Section and PNC Bank’s Security Division. The Middlesex (Massachusetts) County District Attorney’s Office, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey assisted in the investigation and prosecution. Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven H. Breslow of Weinreb’s Springfield Branch Office and Trial Attorney Marianne Shelvey of the Criminal Division’s Organized Crime and Gang Section prosecuted the case.