Constantin Ginga, ATM Skimming, New Jersey 2013

A New York man has pleaded guilty to a $1 million ATM skimming scheme that targeted tri-state bank customers, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of New Jersey.

Constantin Ginga, 52, a Romanian national and Queens, N.Y., resident, admitted to a scheme to steal account information from bank customers throughout New Jersey, New York, and Connecticut by installing secret card-reading devices on ATMs.

Ginga pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge William J. Martini to an information charging him with one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft.

According to documents filed in this and related cases, Ginga and his co-conspirators installed skimmers and pinhole cameras at bank ATMs in New Jersey and Connecticut.

The devices were used to steal account information from unsuspecting customers, which was then used to withdraw cash from their accounts.

Ginga and his co-conspirators used the stolen cash to withdraw approximately $985,000 from Citibank ATMs in New Jersey, New York, and Connecticut.

The scheme, which targeted customers in the tri-state area in 2012 and early 2013, cost a number of banks a total of approximately $5 million in cash stolen from their customer accounts.

Of the nine others charged in relation to the wider scheme, all Romanian nationals who lived in Queens, eight are in custody.

Ginga faces a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison and a $1 million fine, as well as a mandatory, consecutive penalty of two years in prison and a maximum $250,000 fine for aggravated identity theft.

Sentencing is currently scheduled for December 18, 2013.

The U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of New Jersey praised the special agents of the U.S. Secret Service, Newark Field Office, and special agents of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Homeland Security Investigations in Newark, for their investigation into the scheme.

The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Rahul Agarwal and David Eskew of the U.S. Attorney's Office Criminal Division in Newark.

Ginga's guilty plea is a significant blow to the organized crime group responsible for the scheme, which has been linked to a number of other ATM skimming cases in the tri-state area.

Source: https://www.justice.gov/usao-nj/pr/new-york-man-pleads-guilty-1-million-atm-skimming-scheme-targeting-tri-state-bank