A 53-year-old Romania male identified as Gavril Sandu is now in federal custody in Charlotte, North Carolina for his involvement in a massive bank fraud scam. He arrived in the United States on 30 April 2026 after being extradited by Romanian authorities to face charges of conspiracy and bank fraud after years of investigation.
Using Business Phones for Scams
The US Department of Justice revealed in a press release that the scheme was launched in 2009 by a group, including Sandu. Until October 2010 this group allegedly targeted small businesses, specifically hacking into Voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP) systems.
For your information, VOIP technology allows people to make phone calls over a broadband internet connection instead of a traditional analogue phone line.
After gaining unauthorised access to these internet-based phone servers, the group deployed a computer script to automate outgoing calls. Since the calls were routed through the hijacked VOIP accounts of legitimate businesses, the caller ID appeared trustworthy to the victims.
This method is called vishing (voice phishing). The hackers used these supposed official calls to trick people into revealing their debit card numbers and PINs.
Making Fake Cards and Withdrawing Cash
According to the indictment, which a grand jury first handed down on 14 November 2017, in this whole scheme Sandu played the role of a money mule. To turn that stolen data into cold hard cash, Sandu allegedly took the card numbers and made fake physical cards with magnetic stripes. He then visited various ATMs to get funds from the victims’ accounts. He kept some of the stolen cash and sent the rest back to the hackers.
The Long Road to Justice
Sandu had been escaping authorities for a long time and was finally arrested in Romania in January this year. If proven guilty, Sandu may receive up to 30 years in prison. For now, he is staying in a federal cell. His arrest after all these years proves what FBI special agent Reid Davis said that “justice has no timeline,” and that there’s no place for cybercriminals to hide.
“Scams originating outside of our country are out of control. Wherever scammers operate – here or abroad – we will use every tool available to bring them to justice,” US Attorney Ferguson stated.
