Tiberiu Szebeni, 30, of Romania, who was convicted of bank fraud on Aug. 7, 2009, was sentenced to 27 months in prison and 5 years supervised release by Chief U.S. District Court Judge Richard J. Arcara, U.S. Attorney Kathleen M. Mehltretter of the Western District of New York announced on November 12. The defendant was also ordered to pay $50,320 in restitution to Citizens Bank and $1,668.63 in restitution to 13 customers of Citizens Bank.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Aaron J. Mango, who handled the case, stated that Szebeni had been convicted of bank fraud when he participated in a scheme in which he obtained ATM bank card information from customers of Citizens Bank using a skimming device, and then used that information to produce and use counterfeit access devices to fraudulently obtain money. During the course of the bank fraud scheme, Szebeni fraudulently obtained ATM bank card information from approximately 26 individual customers of Citizens Bank.
After fraudulently obtaining the ATM bank card information, Szebeni produced 26 counterfeit access devices so that he could withdraw money from each account. He then used those counterfeit access devices on March 21, 2009 and March 22, 2009 at various ATM locations throughout the Western District of New York, and withdrew a total of $50,320.00.
On March 31, 2009, Szebeni was arrested at the Rainbow Bridge Port of Entry by Special Agents with the United States Secret Service, and has been in federal custody since that date. He pleaded guilty in August.