Romanian crime gangs “draining US welfare accounts,” Wall Street Journal investigation says
An extensive Wall Street Journal investigation by Scott Calvert and Dan Frosch published on Sunday, September 20, supported by evidence gathered by the Secret Service, claimed that Romanian crime gangs stole “ hundreds of millions of dollars from the poorest Americans.”
Radu Dumitrescu · Journalist
· 2 min read
Under the title “How Romanian Criminal Networks Are Draining US Welfare Accounts,” The Wall Street Journal published documents and evidence already submitted to American courts, showing that gangs of Romanian citizens, most of whom entered the US illegally, cloned welfare cards by installing so-called “skimmers” on ATMs.
Skimmers, which fit perfectly over payment terminals and look almost identical, record the user’s account number and PIN during a purchase. Often, criminals encode the data onto blank cards, then withdraw cash from ATMs or purchase commonly used items to resell them on the black market.
“The technological savvy used by the criminal groups dates back to the Cold War, when Romania’s Communist regime trained legions of engineers. As internet cafes proliferated, Romania also saw its rates of cybercrime skyrocket to one of the highest in the world, according to the State Department,” the authors said.
The case documents dozens of Romanian citizens, with first and last names, operating in California, Mississippi, Maryland, and Oregon. Many are in the US illegally or overstayed their visa.
“There are no recent official estimates of how much money has been stolen. But the Agriculture Department said the federal government replaced USD 360 million in benefits stolen from 754,000 households between October 2022 and December 2024, before Congress withdrew that authority,” the WSJ article pointed out.
Although the investigation cites a DIICOT prosecutor who cooperates with American agencies to dismantle Romanian networks in the US, the revelations in the Wall Street Journal, which has 4.5 million subscribers and is the most decorated American financial publication, come as Romanian president Nicușor Dan is in the US for the UN parliamentary meeting.
Previously, Dan published several laudatory editorials about the Trump Administration in US right-wing publications, possibly as a result of arrangements made by a lobbying firm hired by the Presidential Administration.
