Member Of Atm Skimming Conspiracy Targeting Multiple New Jersey Bank Locations Pleads Guilty

NEWARK, N.J. – A member of a scheme that used secret card-reading devices and pinhole cameras on PNC and Bank of America ATMs to steal at least $428,581 pleaded guilty today in Newark federal court.

Acting U.S. Attorney William E. Fitzpatrick of the District of New Jersey; Acting Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Blanco of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division; and Special Agent in Charge Terence S. Opiola of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations Newark Division made the announcement.

Radu Bogdan Marin, 36, a Romanian citizen residing in Glendale, New York, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Esther Salas to an information charging him with one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud. Marin is the first of 13 defendants charged in this matter to plead guilty.

According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court:

Marin and others sought to defraud financial institutions and their customers by illegally obtaining customer account information, including account numbers and personal identification numbers. Marin admitted that between March 2015 and July 2016, he and others used counterfeit ATM cards and stolen customer information to withdraw cash from compromised bank accounts at ATMs in New Jersey. Marin and others used more than 10 ATM cards to conduct fraudulent cash withdrawals in New Jersey, $39,140 of which was personally attributable to Marin.

The conspiracy to commit bank fraud charge carries a maximum potential penalty of 30 years in prison and a $1 million fine. Sentencing is set for July 17, 2017.

The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigation’s Newark, New Jersey, Division; U.S. Secret Service’s Boston Field Office; Longmeadow, Massachusetts, Police Department; Cambridge, Massachusetts, Police Department; and Medford, Massachusetts, Police Department investigated the case with assistance from Bank of America Security and Fraud Section and PNC Bank Security Division. 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.

The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Kelly Graves of the U.S. Attorney’s Office Criminal Division in Newark and Trial Attorney Marianne Shelvey of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division Organized Crime and Gang Section.

Defense counsel: Gary Mizzone Esq., Little Falls, New Jersey