Prison for fraudster
Romanian gets two years and nine months for part in international scheme
A Romanian man who admitted he took part in an international fraud that bilked online car buyers in the U.S. was sentenced Tuesday to two years and nine months in federal prison.
Mihai Postelnicu, 37, was also ordered to pay more than $265,000 in restitution at his sentencing hearing in federal court in Miami. He will be deported after serving his punishment.
Postelnicu told investigators he was recruited in 2007 at a Romanian night club to take part in the multinational swindle, which operated in South Florida, California and elsewhere.
He said he worked for a group of people whofraudulently listed used cars for saleon websites including Craigslist and AutoTrader. 2010 and 2011.
The criminals used fake names,
did
not own the vehicles, had no intention of making legitimate deals and never delivered any of the cars, authorities said.
Victims who responded to the ads and negotiated a purchase price by email were instructed to send electronic transfers of cash to banks in Broward County. Postelnicu then posed as a Swedish and Czech citizen to withdraw money from the bank accounts that he set up under aliases.
He said he came to the U.S. and was trained in Los Angeles on how to open fraudulent bank accounts, but he returned to Romania without taking part in the fraud. He returned to the U.S. in 2010 and began opening several bank accounts.
Federal agents from Homeland Security Investigations and the Secret Service said victims paid for the cars, but the vehicles were never delivered and the sellers ceased communications after they received the money. The emailed transactions were made to look like they came fromlegitimate services such as GoogleWallet, authorities said.
Postelnicu’s lawyer Assistant Federal Public Defender Daryl Wilcox wrote in court records that Postelnicu was a mere “money mule” who played a minor role in the scam.
But federal prosecutors said Postelnicu, who used false identities to open U.S. bank accounts to receive and then transfer the money to his co-conspirators, played a key part in the fraud by making customers feel like their moneywas safe.
“[His] role in the scheme was integral to its success and in noway could it be characterized as ‘minor,’ ” Assistant U.S. Attorney Alicia Shickwrote in court documents.
Postelnicu pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud conspiracy. Investigators obtained an arrest warrant for Postelnicu in April 2014.
Postelnicu, whowasworking on a cruise ship, was arrested Sept. 21when the ship he worked on docked at the Port of Miami.
pmcmahon@tribpub.com, 954-356-4533 or Twitter @SentinelPaula