NEW YORK CITY — Attempts to steal identities of ATM users has landed four Brooklyn men with a 908 count indictment, the Queens District Attorney said.
Ionut Gherasim, 29, Ionut Paraschiu, 31, Zsolt Dezsy, 37 and Robert Duczon, 37, replaced ATM panels with cameras and skimming devices to steal card numbers and pin codes, according to DA Richard Brown.
When the NYPD raided the men's Gates Avenue homes in Bed-Stuy on Aug. 31, they found more than 250 items savings and checking account numbers, debit card numbers, ATM pin codes and eye retina images, according to court papers.
The NYPD also found skimmers, false ATM panels with cameras that recorded customers as they entered their PIN number and numerous fake cards from a host of banks, prosecutors said.
The defendants tried to cover up the scam by throwing a false ATM panel, two skimmers and cards out of the window when police officials burst in, officials said.
Duczon, Dezsy and Gherasim live together on Gates Avenue, according to the statement. Paraschiu also lives in the same building, according to the indictment.
Deszy, Duczon and Gherasim were caught on bank surveillance video between July and August this year removing and replacing the top panel of ATMs and manipulating the machines in a manner not customary with withdrawing cash, according to Brown.
"The four defendants in this case are accused of conspiring to steal the identity of ATM users by placing whole ATM panels with pin hole cameras aimed to record customers inputting their PIN numbers and skimmers," Brown said in a statement.
"This kind of stealth thievery will not be tolerated in Queens County.”
Duczon was arraigned on Oct. 18, and Dezsy on Oct. 26 in Queens Supreme Court with bail set for both at $500,000, according to the DA's office.
Duczon's lawyer, Christopher Whitehair, and Dezsy's lawyer, Leslie Baez, were not immediately available for comment.
Gherasim and Paraschiu will be arraigned on Nov. 9, according to the DA's office. If convicted, the defendants each face up to seven years in prison.
