SYRACUSE, New York — A Romanian national has been sentenced to 45 months in federal prison for bank fraud and aggravated identity theft in an ATM skimming scheme, the U.S. Department of Justice said.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of New York
Gheorghe Nistor, age 44, was sentenced on October 6, 2026. First Assistant United States Attorney John A. Sarcone III and Craig L. Tremaroli, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI's Albany Field Office, made the announcement, which was reported on October 26.
As part of his prior guilty plea, Nistor admitted that between approximately April and August 2024, he and his co-defendant, Radu-Lucien Grigoras, installed skimming devices and pinhole cameras on ATMs belonging to financial institutions, including in Onondaga County and Cayuga County and in other states, prosecutors said.
The skimming devices recorded the debit card information of cards inserted into the ATMs by unsuspecting customers, and the pinhole cameras recorded customers entering their PINs, the Justice Department said. Nistor admitted the stolen information was then encoded onto the magnetic strips of other cards and used, with the stolen PINs, to make cash withdrawals.
About $191,983 taken from more than 190 people
Nistor admitted that he and Grigoras fraudulently withdrew approximately $191,983 from the accounts of more than 190 accountholders, according to the Justice Department. The announcement did not state a separate outcome for Grigoras in this sentencing.
Sarcone said ATM skimming is not a victimless crime and described it as calculated theft. He said Nistor will face deportation proceedings after he completes his prison sentence. That statement is the prosecutor's position, reported here as his statement.
The case is a reminder for card users in New York and elsewhere to shield the keypad when entering a PIN and to report unfamiliar ATM withdrawals promptly — the scheme in this case relied on capturing both card data and PINs at the machine itself.