Five men were arrested in Los Angeles on suspicion of fraudulently withdrawing funds intended to provide essential food and financial aid to low-income families using counterfeit benefits transfer cards .
According to the US Department of Justice, all five men are in the United States without approval. The man is Marcel Musat, 53, from Romania. 31-year-old Ionut Calcium from Romania. Florian Servan, 51, Romania. Wesley David Adrian Dimuamua, 36 years old. Hichem Mohamed El Mabrouk, 35 years old from France.
“These accused are illegal in the United States that stole some of our community,” Joseph T. McNally said in a statement. “This fraudulent activity contributes to significant financial losses and undermines a lifeline that is essential for struggling families.”
The man has been accused of creating clone cards, which are debit cards, gift cards, or other devices with magnetic strips encoded with information from legitimate EBT cards. Also, some men have a skimming device installed in ATMs, capturing card data and recording cardholder pin entries, prosecutors allege.
They are accused of obtaining up to $25,480 from the unauthorized withdrawal of CalFresh and Calworks interests, and will be charged for the use of one of the unauthorized access devices or counterfeit EBT cards, respectively.
EBT scams are ramp-delaying issues in California. The amount accused of stealing a man is merely a decrease in the total bucket that goes missing each year.
According to court documents, the California Department of Social Affairs detected more than $126.8 million stolen from the victim’s card in 2024. In Los Angeles County, authorities say more than $19.6 million in EBT benefits were stolen in 2022.
The man was caught in a coordinated law enforcement operation on Sunday. There, more than 70 officers monitored ATM locations throughout the Los Angeles area and used information from stolen EBT cards to identify individuals making withdrawals.
“This successful operation targeted cross-border criminal organizations that we’ve stole from our underprivileged neighbours and taxpayers,” said John Paschicco, a special Los Angeles agent for Homeland Security Research. I mentioned it. “HSI Los Angeles and our partners work day and night to make this available to those who need it the most, not the pockets of greedy criminals.”
In 2023, the Los Angeles Police Department arrested 13 Romanians, considered to be a Romanian syndicate known to target people experiencing the financial difficulties of EBT cards. Prosecutors said Calciu, one of the men arrested on Sunday in Bust, was previously convicted of worsening robbery in Romania.
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