Romanian National Sentenced to 364 in the County Jail, 3 years Probation for Scheme with 150 Credit Cards
By Mary K. Miraglia
HACKENSACK, N.J. (April 7, 2017) — A Romanian national from Flushing, Queens who pleaded guilty to fraud involving up to 150 stolen and fraudulent credit cards was sentenced Friday, April 7 to 365 days in the Bergen County Jail as a condition of three years probation.
Judge Margaret M. Foti sentenced Adrian Voiculescu, also known as Edward Ene, in Superior Court in Hackensack Friday. Voiculescu / Ene had been arrested in Fort Lee last May 26 when he tried to withdraw money from ATM machines at local banks.
Voiculescu was arrested carrying information on 144 bank accounts he intended to use, said his lawyer, criminal defense attorney Ron Bar-Nadav of Hackensack. He returned to a bank in Fort Lee where he sucessfully made previous withdrawals. His MO was to purchase the fraudulent and stolen credit cards and identification from an underground “broker” and use them to withdraw money from ATM machines that had already been fitted with skimmers to facilitate theft. He would smear the lenses of security cameras with cocoa butter to obscure any photos.
Voiculescu pleaded guilty to third and fourth degree charges of possessing false and stolen credit cards.
Voiculescu has more than 300 days of jail credit, so he can expect to serve about two months in jail before he’s taken into custody by Immigration and Naturalization Service. He has no legal status in the United States, Bar-Nadav said, and is “guaranteed’ to be deported back to Romania. Bar-Nadav said that immigration would most likely pick him up from the Bergen County Jail with one or two weeks, and initiate the deportation proceedings.
