LOS ANGELES (KTLA) – Five foreign nationals in the U.S. illegally were arrested in connection with a card skimming scam targeting lower income victims receiving CalWORKs and CalFresh benefits, authorities announced Wednesday.
The transnational criminal organization used skimming devices illegally inserted in point-of-sale mechanisms, like credit card readers and ATMs, to “clone” electronic benefit transfer (EBT) cards that can then be used to steal funds from those accounts.
An investigation by the California Department of Social Services revealed that nearly $127 million was stolen from EBT cards in 2024.
In a multi-agency law enforcement operation on Feb. 2, 70 officers conducted surveillance on ATM locations across Los Angeles to identify suspects making multiple cash withdrawals using stolen account data on cloned EBT cards.
“Authorities made arrests after determining that the suspects making withdrawals at the ATMs were not entitled to access funds that had been deposited into accounts belonging to legitimate EBT beneficiaries,” a news release from the Department of Justice stated.
Three Romanian and two French nationals were taken into custody during the operation and charged the following day with the use of unauthorized access devices, the cards containing stolen EBT account numbers and PINs used to withdrawal cash.
The five suspects, some of whom were in possession of skimming devices and were able to withdraw more than $25,500 in a single day, are identified as:
- Marcel Musat, 53, of Romania, who is charged with one count of use of unauthorized access devices and allegedly had approximately 45 cloned cards on his person when he was arrested. Musat admitted to investigators he had overstayed his visa and therefore is illegally in the United States
- Ionut Calciu, 31, of Romania, who is charged with one count of use of unauthorized access devices and allegedly possessed 10 counterfeit EBT cards when he was arrested. According to court documents, Calciu previously was convicted of aggravated robbery in Romania
- Florian Serban, 51, of Romania, who is charged with one count of use of unauthorized access devices and he allegedly possessed 58 re-encoded California EBT cards
- Wesley David Adrian Dimoua-Moua, 36, of France, who is charged with one count of use of unauthorized devices and allegedly had 11 counterfeit EBT cards when he was arrested. Dimoua-Moua is a visa overstay illegally present in the United States.
- Hichem Mohamed El Mabrouk, 35, of France, who is charged with one count of use of unauthorized access devices and allegedly was in possession of 37 re-encoded California EBT cards when he was arrested
“These defendants who are illegally in the United States targeted and stole from some of the poorest members of our community,” Acting United States Attorney Joseph T. McNally said. “This fraudulent activity has contributed to significant financial losses, undermining an essential lifeline for struggling families.”
Three of the five arrested are being held without bail, with all of them scheduled to appear in court between Feb. 5 – March 11.
