The man was sentenced to prison for stealing thousands of dollars from low-income Southern California residents.
According to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office, Catalin-Marius Graur, 43, stole the funds by skimming tens of thousands of electronic benefit transfer (EBT) cards at an ATM.
The EBT card allows recipients to access benefits such as CalFresh, Calworks, and Supplementary Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
Graul entered the United States in 2020 on a tourist visa but is a Romanian citizen who has overstayed his visa, prosecutors said. His last known residence was in Hollywood.
Graur traveled through Los Angeles and the Inland Empire, installing sophisticated skimming devices at ATMs and POS terminals to capture account information for those who used those devices.
He will work with several members of a cross-border criminal organization from Romania to carry out the plan, court documents said.
While searching for Graur’s accomplice’s home, investigators discovered that Graur had sent him over 36,000 stolen EBT card numbers over three years.
In June 2024, Graul was arrested in New York City. He was found with more than $37,000 in cash and stolen access device numbers of 1,488. In October 2024, he pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud.
On August 4, 2025, he was sentenced to 10 years in prison and ordered to pay $165,697 in reparations.
The lawsuit was investigated by the FBI, the US Secret Service, the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Office, the California Department of Social Welfare, and the Romanian National Police Department.
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