civic
San Diego man gets two years in prison for stealing from EBT accounts with card skimmers
Federal prosecutors say he is one of more than 50 defendants in a ring accused of stealing at least $4 million from California benefit accounts.
A man was sentenced in federal court in San Diego to two years in prison and ordered to pay $181,390 in restitution for stealing benefits from low-income families with card skimmers, Times of San Diego and NBC 7 report. Both outlets' accounts track a U.S. Attorney's Office release, and give the sentencing day as Friday, Oct. 3, which was a Saturday, so the exact date is unclear.
Prosecutors say Razvan Alexander Balu installed skimmers on ATMs and point-of-sale terminals to take money from EBT and CalWORKs accounts. They say he attempted at least $227,570 from at least 212 victims over a little more than a month and withdrew $181,390. Victims were in San Diego, Fresno, Los Angeles, Kern, Kings and Tulare counties.
Prosecutors say he is one of more than 50 defendants in a Romanian-led ring accused of stealing at least $4 million from California EBT accounts. Those figures are the government's allegations about the ring as a whole.
How this story was made: drafted with AI assistance, then checked line by line against the sources below by a San Diego Insight editor before publishing. Our standards.
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