American authorities have arrested a Romanian who was accused by California prosecutors of defrauding the United States government of more than $5 million. With the complicity of more than 200 other people, Romanians and Americans, the man created a criminal scheme through which he received unemployment benefits during the pandemic using forged documents.

One of the headquarters of the FBIPhoto: Jonathan Weiss / Alamy / Profimedia Images

The California prosecutor’s office (San Diego) announced the arrest of a Romanian, Constantin “Bobby” Sandu, who claims that the man created a scheme by which he managed to defraud the American state of more than 5 million dollars. , money received from unemployment benefits goes to help those affected by the pandemic.

According to the quoted source, the Romanian allegedly had 214 accomplices – Romanian and American citizens of California.

They are accused of falsifying documents, creating false accounts and declaring fictitious businesses, and filing false documents to obtain assistance with the California Department of Economic Development, which administers state unemployment assistance.

  • “This defendant operated an extensive international network of fraud to benefit a program designed to assist California workers struggling to survive the COVID-19 pandemic (…)
  • Through this scheme, millions of dollars were diverted from those who really needed the money,” said US Attorney Randy Grossman.

The fraud was committed from the fall of 2020 to the end of the summer of 2022, when Sandu and his accomplices designed the entire scheme to obtain as much money as possible from these allowances, using false identities, falsified utility services. accounts, falsified income statements, fake health insurance cards and documents from non-existent companies, explained Special Agent Stacey Moy of the FBI’s San Diego office.

According to him, in general, the Romanian communicated with his accomplices through Facebook or met with them in person:

  • “The San Diego Police Department is dedicated to investigating and solving the crimes of these organized crime networks. The arrest of Konstantin “Bobby” Sandu is the result of a year-long investigation. We will continue to work with all partners to arrest the more than 200 suspects involved in this investigation.”

Constantin Sandu was arrested by the FBI in San Diego on March 1.