EBT Theft Investigations Lead to Arrest, Seizures in California and Romania

Federal law enforcement officials announced Sept. 9 the arrest and arraignment in Los Angeles of a Romanian national for his alleged role in a conspiracy to steal electronic benefit transfer—better known as EBT—payments totaling more than $580,000. Charged with the use and attempted use of unauthorized access devices and conspiracy to use the devices, Andrei Bogdan Arteni faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and fines as high as $250,000 on each charge. Arteni is accused of participating with other individuals in a complex scheme to use so-called skimming devices and cloned bank cards to illegally withdraw funds from unsuspecting victims’ accounts using ATMs across the state....