ORLANDO, Fla. — The Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) arrested four suspects accused of stealing donations from churches and religious schools.
In December 2020, the FDLE launched an investigation after 24 churches were targeted in Lee County, according to the FDLE. There were reports that several other churches outside the county were targeted as well.
Investigators centered on six suspects, all of whom are Romanian citizens that operated in the Orlando area, the department said.
The suspects traveled to churches around Florida and in other states as well, stealing checks from church mailboxes, the FDLE said. The suspects targeted as many as 85 churches in a single day, some more than once.
As many as 1,500 checks valued at more than $740,000 were stolen from as many as 636 churches, the FDLE said. More than half of those churches, 355, were in Florida.
“Churches depend on donations from generous members of the community to operate and serve those in need," Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody said. "It is despicable that this crime ring would exploit the selfless acts of kindness displayed through these donations for selfish greed. Thank you, to the law enforcement agencies that worked with my Office of Statewide Prosecution to bring these criminals to justice.”
The suspects used several aliases to deposit the stolen checks into bank accounts and then withdrew money from ATMs when the money was available before banks could recognize a problem, according to the FDLE.
With the money, the suspects bought food, clothes and vehicles, the department said. They also sent high-value wire transfers back to Romania.
“This low-tech yet well-organized effort to steal hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of mailed-in charitable donations—at a time when donations may have been most needed—has been stopped," FDLE Commissioner Rick Swearingen said. "I appreciate the commitment of our investigators, analysts, Cape Coral PD and the Office of Statewide Prosecution for putting these criminals behind bars.”
So far, agents have arrested four suspects with two others at large. The four suspects currently in custody are:
- Ionut Raducan, 33
- Marius Dumitru, 27
- Marius Dumitru (aka Viorel Dumitru),34
- Panait Dumitru, 32
All four suspects are booked into the Orange County Jail.
The two remaining suspects are 45-year-old Catalin Trandafir (aka Ionut Trandafir) and 39-year-old Simona Trandafir.
All six suspects face, or will face, the following charges:
- Conspiracy to commit racketeering
- Racketeering
- Grand theft
- Unlawful possession of personal identification information
- Money laundering
The Cape Coral Police Department, Department of Homeland Security and the Orange County Sheriff's Office all assisted the FDLE in the investigation.
