ST. LOUIS – Two Romanian nationals appeared in federal court on Wednesday and admitted installing ATM skimmers at several banks across the St. Louis area to commit bank fraud.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Missouri, Mihai Vlaicu, 48, and Mihai Florin Marinescu, 37 pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud.
A third member of their cohort, Laurentiu Miguel Ivan, 33, pleaded guilty in March to the same charge. Two co-defendants, Nelu Nae, 37, and Venera Isabelle Dumitru, 28, pleaded guilty to the same charge in April. A sixth person, Ianus Nita, 53, is still at large.
Prosecutors said all six were involved in a conspiracy to install skimming devices on bank ATMs to steal customer account data and PINs that they then used, or attempted to use, that information to withdraw money from those accounts in order to defraud financial institutions.
Law enforcement said the group was using an Airbnb in St. Louis County as a base of operations. Police searched the residence in summer 2024 and found a laptop computer containing hundreds of videos of customers entering their PINs while using an ATM that had been outfitted with a skimmer. Police also discovered skimming devices, a large amount of cash, and several gift cards.
Ivan will be sentenced on June 25, Dumitru will be sentenced on July 10, Nae on July 23, and Marinescu and Vlaicu on August 20, respectively. They each face up to 30 years in federal prison and a $1 million fine.