(WNY News Now) – ROCHESTER, N.Y.-U.S. Attorney Trini E. Ross announced today that Retan Muntean, 42, and Samuel Dimitru, 51, both of Romania, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Charles J. Siragusa to wire fraud, which carries a maximum penalty of 20 years behind bars and a $250,000 fine.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Melissa M. Marangola, who is handling the case, stated that between June and December 15, 2023, Muntean and Dimitru, devised a scheme to defraud various grocery and retail stores. The defendants drove to various stores and purchased multiple gift cards totaling thousands of dollars. In each instance, they presented the gift cards for purchase to an unwitting cashier. Once the cashier activated the gift cards, Muntean and Dimitru told the cashiers they were going to cancel the transactions. They then pocketed the activated gift cards and handed decoy gift cards back to the unwitting cashier, allowing them to leave the stores with activated gift cards without paying for them. During the scheme, Muntean and Dimitru possessed and presented, when asked, fake identification cards. Muntean and Dimitru attempted to steal $173,420.23 from the various grocery and retail stores. They successfully stole $94,427.65 through the scheme, which occurred in 56 stores across the United States including Arizona, New Jersey, Louisiana, Florida, South Carolina, Virginia, Missouri, Massachusetts Connecticut, California, Texas, and New York.
The pleas are the result of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, under the direction of Special Agent-in-Charge Matthew Miraglia.
The defendants are scheduled to be sentenced on September 12, 2024, before Judge Siragusa.
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