ROMANIAN SENTENCED TO 5 YEARS IN PRISON FOR ATM/IDENTITY THEFT SCHEME

United States Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan announced today, April 15, 2008, that Vasile Ciocan, a Romanian national who was residing in Canada at the time of the offense, has been sentenced in federal court in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to 61 months of incarceration and five years of supervised release on his conviction of Bank Fraud and Aggravated Identity Theft.

United States District Judge Nora Barry Fischer imposed the sentence on Ciocan, age 29.

According to information presented to the court by Assistant United States Attorney Brendan T. Conway, Ciocan participated in a Bank Fraud and Identity Theft scheme that spanned several states, including Ohio, Illinois, New York, Virginia, and Pennsylvania, among others.  As part of the scheme, Ciocan and his co-conspirators placed skimming devices on Automated Teller Machines, along with remote cameras.  The skimming devices captured the information from customers' ATM cards, and the remote cameras captured the customers' personal identification numbers.  Ciocan and his co-conspirators used the fraudulently obtained information to manufacture counterfeit ATM cards, and traveled from state to state using the counterfeit ATM cards and fraudulently obtained personal identification numbers to withdraw funds from customers' accounts.

Ciocan and one of his co-conspirators were arrested by officers from the Monroeville Police Department on April 13, 2007, when a concerned citizen noticed them acting suspiciously and attempting numerous transactions at ATM machines.  An investigation by the Monroeville Police Department led to the discovery of dozens of counterfeit ATM cards and thousands of dollars on the persons of Ciocan and his co-conspirator.  Further investigation led to the discovery of hundreds of other counterfeit ATM cards associated with the scheme.

Ms. Buchanan commended the Financial Crimes Task Force of Southwestern Pennsylvania, the Monroeville Police Department, federal, state and local law enforcement officials in other states, and Canadian law enforcement officials, for the investigation leading to the successful prosecution of Ciocan.  The Financial Crimes Task Force of Southwestern Pennsylvania is comprised of United States Postal Inspectors, Special Agents of the United States Secret Service and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Investigators from the Allegheny County District Attorney's Office, and Detectives from Allegheny County and the City of Pittsburgh.