PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Two Romanian citizens charged with stealing more than $160,000 in food assistance using EBT card skimmers made their first appearance before a federal judge in Portland on Wednesday.
Alexandru Telescu, 29, and Aramis Manolea, 35, were charged by a federal grand jury in a 26-count indictment with conspiracy to defraud the United States, access device fraud, possession, production, trafficking of device-making equipment and aggravated identity theft. Both men are in the country unlawfully, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Oregon.
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“This scheme effectively took food from the dinner tables of struggling American families,” said Carrie Nordyke, Special Agent in Charge of the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation’s Seattle Field Office.
According to court documents obtained by KOIN 6 News, Telescu and Manolea, along with several other unnamed defendants, used card skimming devices to record EBT card numbers from low-income recipients of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program in Oregon…