Two Romanian Nationals who siphoned at least $100,000 from the bank accounts of Tri-Citians have been sentenced to federal prison.
The February 2019 theft by several ATM bandits was considered by authorities to be one of the largest skimming operations ever in the area.
Their recent convictions in U.S. District Court for the Oregon District did not include the Mid-Columbia portion of their bank fraud scheme.
Simion — described as “an experienced credit card skimmer” — was sentenced to four years in prison, to be followed by five years of supervised release. He also has pending charges for similar crimes in New York.
Tigmarau is doing 3 1/2 years, with the same supervision time after he gets out of federal prison.
News releases from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Portland and Homeland Security Investigations both say the pair’s “precise movements in the months” leading up to the April 2019 arrests are unknown.
However, Pasco police announced the capture of the card skimmers at the time with a Facebook post, saying Detective Julie Lee “was able to network with several other detectives nationwide to develop info on who these people were and what routes they were traveling.”
The post two years ago said the investigation had been handed over to federal authorities… Tri-City Herald