Second Man Sentenced in Credit Union ATM Fraud Scheme

An Oklahoma federal judge sentenced Marinel Muchie on Tuesday to 34 months in prison for stealing nearly $416,000 from ATMs at three credit unions and a bank.

In his plea agreement, Muchie admitted that he and co-defendant Iancu Ovidiu Florea targeted Tinker Federal Credit Union ATMs in Yukon, Moore, south Oklahoma City and Tulsa throughout July and August 2019. Florea and Muchie placed skimming devices and tiny cameras on ATMs to steal and store account data, including personal identification numbers when members used their debit cards. They used this stolen information to create phony debit cards to siphon funds from credit union member accounts.

The $5.9 billion TFCU incurred losses totaling $79,660 from 110 compromised member accounts, according to prosecutors for the Northern District of Oklahoma.

Court documents also showed that Muchie used member account information to steal $37,549 from Navy Federal Credit Union ATMs in Las Vegas; $234,548 from ATMs at Clark County Credit Union, also in Las Vegas; and $64,140 from ATMs of Great Western Bank in Louisville, Colo.

Last September, Muchie pleaded guilty to one felony count of conspiracy to commit financial institution fraud and one felony count of aggravated identity theft.

U.S. District Court Judge Claire V. Eagan in Tulsa ordered Muchie to six years of supervised release following his prison sentence and to pay $415,898 in restitution.

Florea was sentenced in November to time served plus five years of supervised release. He was also ordered to pay $79,660 in restitution to TFCU.