Three Romanians were given prison sentences by U.S. Judge, William S. Duffey, for an Internet-based fraud scheme to con money with phony advertisements for cars and merchandise, and then send the funds to co-conspirators in Romania, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office, Northern District of Georgia.

Romanian Silviu Leoveanu, 32, was sentenced to 33 months in prison to be followed by 3 years of supervised release, while Ionut Budulan, 28, got 54 months in prison to be followed by 3 years of supervised release. The third, Silviu Malea, 30, was sentenced to 41 months in prison to be followed by 3 years of supervised release.  The defendants were convicted in December, 2011, after pleading guilty to conspiracy, wire fraud, and passport fraud charges.

From November 2010 until around June 10, 2011, the defendants and others conspired in a mail and wire fraud scheme, based primarily in Romania, that involved the false advertising of cars and other merchandise on Internet websites, trade magazines and newspapers in the U.S. Buyers who responded to the false advertisements were told by email to send money to an account via Western Union. The account did not exist and the money was stolen

The Romanians entered the U.S. and picked up the money transfers from buyers at various Western Union outlets, without ever planning to provide the purchased motor vehicles and other merchandise to the prospective buyers.

Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com