2 Romanian nationals arrested in Charlotte plead guilty to stealing $760K in SNAP benefits scheme

CHARLOTTE — Two Romanian nationals pleaded guilty to wire fraud on Thursday in federal court for running a multi-state SNAP benefits scheme. They stole $760,000 from the most vulnerable population, and the duo had ties to the Charlotte region, prosecutors said.

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Federal investigators said this wasn’t just a simple case of credit card fraud or a loss to a big corporation. Instead, it involved community members who were robbed of necessary benefits.

Brothers 37-year-old Marian and 39-year-old Catalin Dumitru were preying on the nation’s most vulnerable population and stealing taxpayer dollars. The brothers are Romanian citizens living in the U.S. illegally, Ferguson said.

The Dumitrus were arrested in Charlotte.

Channel 9’s Hanna Goetz spoke with U.S. Attorney Russ Ferguson about the case.

“This kind of case makes me so angry because they’re stealing from the most vulnerable people,” said Ferguson, who is the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina. “The people who are on nutrition assistance and they’re stealing taxpayer benefits from it, so they’re stealing from all of us just for their own gain.”

The brothers installed skimming devices on ATMs, fuel pumps, and other places where customers would swipe an EBT card, stealing information and SNAP benefits. They would then transfer it onto a counterfeit card.

They used the money to buy more than $15,000 worth of products at a store in Gastonia and more than $19,000 in Pineville. They resold the products for profit until investigators caught them.

Altogether, hundreds of people were victimized over the yearlong theft ring, which resulted in $760,000 stolen from SNAP programs, Ferguson said.

This likely means victims couldn’t afford to feed their families at that time.

“Somebody didn’t get their nutrition benefits that week, and if you look at the amount of loss here, it’s a paycheck,” Ferguson said. “I mean, people are losing full benefits that they would be using to feed their families, to buy infant formula for their babies, and they can’t do that because of these two guys.”

They each face a maximum statutory sentence of 20 years in prison.

Ferguson told Goetz that they see this as a start to the investigation and hope to track down anyone else involved in a broader fraud scheme. He also added that they will be deported after serving time in the U.S.