California Trio Accused of Robbing Low-Income Families and EBT Recipients

Oakland, California – Federal officials in California have accused three individuals of stealing millions of dollars from low-income families and EBT recipients.

It was a case involving foreign federal police and the United States Secret Service (USSS).

Petrica Mosneagu, 44, Ionut Sopirla, 38, and Virgil Tudorascu, 42, are accused of obtaining low-income households’ EBT account information and using it to make illicit cash withdrawals.

In Oakland, Mosneagu and Sopirla were taken into custody on Tuesday afternoon. Tudorascu was taken into custody in Oakland early on Thursday. Bail was denied to all three of them when they were taken into the Santa Rita Jail.

The men, all from Romania, are accused by federal investigators of taking money out of cloned cards using real EBT card details. Authorities claim that by skimming the cards at ATMs or point-of-sale terminals, they were able to obtain the details of the EBT recipients.

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According to federal investigators, the victims are EBT cardholders who depend on the money to purchase food and other needs for their homes. They are suspected of stealing over $23 million.

Over 14 months, ending in March 2024, the USSS oversaw an investigation involving multiple law enforcement agencies, including the San Francisco Human Services Agency-Special Investigations Unit, Homeland Security, Berkeley, Oakland, Pleasant Hill, and Richmond Police Departments.

The Romanian National Police and the USSS in Bucharest were also parties to the investigation.

The guys are expected to appear in court on Wednesday; if found guilty, they may spend up to 10 years behind bars.