Renton Man Sentenced To Five Years In Prison After ATM Fraud Scheme

A Renton man arrested after investigators uncovered an ATM fraud ring was sentenced today by U.S. District Court in Seattle to five years in prison, five additional years of supervised release and $225,592 in restitution for bank fraud, conspiracy to commit access device fraud and aggravated identity theft.  

Claudiu Tudor, 37, of Renton, was sentenced Friday July 8 in U.S. District Court in Seattle after he and another man stole more than $225,000 from the bank accounts of over 130 people by installing cameras and other devices on automated teller machines to record customers' debit card information, according to a press release from the U.S. Department of Justice.

Tudor was arrested along with Mihai Podaru -- who is also known under a number of aliases, including Gvidiv Mateescu and Ovidiu Mateescu and more -- after investigators with say they participated in a scheme that placed devices on ATMs that read bank card information.

Banks and credit unions in Bellevue,  Seattle, Kirkland, Lynnwood, Puyallup and in King County were targeted by the ring that electronically captured ATM card information for later use,  law enforcement officials said.

The investigation began in September 2010 when a citizen reported two men loitering around an ATM in Woodinville, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. The King County Sheriff’s Office found the skimming device and camera on the ATM, according to law enforcement.

The Secret Service Electronic Crimes Task Force linked the defendants to skimming incidents dating back to mid-2010 involving Key Bank on Holman Road in Seattle, two Wells Fargo branches in Kirkland, and Boeing Employee Credit Union (BECU) ATMs in Renton, Woodinville and Puyallup, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

The men were identified and placed under surveillance and were arrested in November 2010, with a hotel room full of tools and equipment for skimming account information and making counterfeit debit cards, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

A third man was involved, but investigators only were able to identify Tudor and Mateescu, said United States Attorney’s Office spokeswoman Emily Langlie.

The skimming devices are installed over an ATM's scanner and they read the customer's bank account information from the ATM transactions, according to law enforcement. That information is used later to steal money from the account.

The devices don't interfere with accessing money and the customer might not even realize that his or her account had been vulnerable until much later, Kirkland Police Sgt. Rob Saloum told Bellevue Patch in November, when Tudor and Mateescu were arrested. 

With account numbers and personal identification numbers, the two made counterfeit debit cards to take money, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

Saloum said it's possible for a person to be victimized by this scheme and not realize it for days until they get their bank statments.

Federal prosecutors noted, "Indeed, any person who uses the ATM is a potential unwitting victim of this fraud scheme.”

Tudor and Mateescu were charged in King County in connection with identity theft-related charges. Tudor's sentence on Friday was handed down in federal court.

The U.S Justice Department works closely with the local law enforcement to determine whether federal charges are appropriate, Langlie said.

"Fraud activity conducted over a wire; this is the type of activity where federal charges apply," she said.

At Tudor's sentencing, U.S. District Judge Richard A. Jones said that he particularly was troubled by the sophistication behind this crime “motivated solely by greed” and by Tudor's lack of legitimate employment for several years, which suggested to the court that he was “financing his lifestyle through such criminal activity,” according to the press release. According to the U.S. Justice Department, Jones further noted that without the intervention by law enforcement, the takings from the scheme “could have easily doubled or tripled.”

Mateescu, a Romanian citizen, is scheduled for sentencing on July 29, according to court documents.

After a similar, but unrelated, ATM "skimming" incident, the Bellevue Police Department released the following tips for avoiding skimmers:

• Be aware of your surroundings.  If someone is hovering around the ATM, leave and report it to the bank employee or call 911.
• Use an ATM that is located within a building, bank, grocery store where it is monitored by staff.
• Don't give out your debit/credit card number, card or pin numbers.