A man who took more than $180,000 from low-income families through a scheme that involved installing card-skimming devices on ATMs and point-of-sale terminals was sentenced in San Diego federal court Friday to two years in prison.
Razvan Alexander Balu is one of more than 50 defendants charged by federal prosecutors with stealing money from victims’ CALWORKS benefit accounts. The CALWORKS program helps disadvantaged families with at least one child pay for rent, housing, food, clothing, medical payments, and utilities.
According to a prosecution sentencing memo, Balu tried to take at least $227,570 from at least 212 victims’ EBT accounts and successfully withdrew $181,390. His plea agreement states that the thefts occurred over the course of just over one month…