Ohio
Romanian man in U.S. illegally installed card-skimming devices in 3 states, feds say
How to Spot Credit Card Skimmers: Top Safety Tips
How to check for credit card skimmers
A Romanian man who according to court documents conspired with others to install card-skimming devices on ATMs in multiple states has been sentenced to one year in prison and is expected to be deported after his release.
Danut Urseiu, 32, pleaded guilty in May in federal court in Cincinnati to a bank fraud conspiracy charge. The sentence was handed down Nov. 18.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the Cincinnati-area charges against Danut Urseiu relate to a two-week spree in early 2023, when card-reading devices were installed on nine ATMs in Cincinnati, Green Township and Liberty Township.
But federal prosecutors in Michigan say Urseiu and his foreign national co-conspirators stole information from thousands of people in multiple states.
The crime spree resulted in hundreds of thousands of dollars in losses.
According to court documents, a card-skimmer at an ATM can collect account numbers and personal identification numbers when a person uses their card. A concealed camera above the keypad captures the PIN, to correlate the card data with the PIN.
The information is then re-encoded on the magnetic strip of other cards, including gift cards, the documents say. Those fraudulent cards can be used to withdraw cash at ATMs or make purchases.
When Urseiu was arrested in Royal Oak, Michigan last year, police found 62 gift cards in his pockets and another 192 gift cards in the vehicle he was driving, documents say.
Man in U.S. illegally
Urseiu entered the U.S. illegally in January 2023, according to court documents. In February 2023, he was seen on surveillance video in Liberty Township installing card-skimming and video devices on at least one ATM.
In total, an unnamed financial institution reported more than 3,900 compromised credit card or debit card numbers at 23 ATMs, according to court documents.
In March of 2023, Urseiu and several co-conspirators were arrested in Monroe County, New York for allegedly installing skimmers on ATMs in that area.
Urseiu was then arrested by immigration authorities, and an immigration judge ordered him deported to Romania, court documents say. He was deported in May 2023, but approximately three months later returned to the U.S. illegally.
His conviction in the Cincinnati-area case is his third since 2024. According to court documents, Urseiu was convicted in Michigan of identity theft and related state charges in May 2024. He was sentenced to 122 days. After being released, he was charged in federal court in Detroit with unlawfully re-entering the U.S. He pleaded guilty to that charge and was sentenced to 10 months in prison.
Out of prison, Indiana’s caviar king back on Ohio River to find fishing holes taken
David Cox, of English, Indiana, says once he began setting his nets again after a two-year prison sentence and a three-year ban on commercial fishing, all of his once-secret spots were taken.
Can you eat fish from the Ohio River?
In 1975, future presidential candidate Michael Dukakis, then governor of Massachusetts, bet 20 pounds of New England cod that the Red Sox would defeat the Reds in the World Series. If things went south for Boston, Ohio governor James Rhodes promised to send Dukakis 10 pounds of Lake Erie perch and 10 pounds of Ohio River catfish. The Reds ended up winning and the cod was sent to the Convalescent Home for Children, in Cincinnati.
At the time, people were still eating catfish from the Ohio without too much concern. The fish were also served at several restaurants along the river.
There were warnings in 1977
But two years later, in 1977, The Ohio River Valley Water Sanitation Commission released the results of a study of contaminants found in the tissues of Ohio River fish. They warned anglers in cities such as Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Louisville, Wheeling and Gallipolis that man-made chemicals known as PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, had been discovered in the river fish. Later, high concentrations of mercury were discovered in the fish, too.
Thanks to the Clean Water Act of 1972 and the environmental regulations that followed, the river is now cleaner than it was in the seventies. And it’s still teeming with a variety of fish, including catfish, striped bass, drum and black bass, among other species.
But even though PCBs were banned by the Environmental Protection Agency in 1979, they are still found in fish, since they remain in the sediment in the bottom of the river. “Organisms live in the sediment and fish feed on them,” Rich Cogen, the executive director of the Ohio River Foundation told The Enquirer. Mercury is also a big problem, according to Cogen.
So the question is: Can you eat fish caught in the Ohio River?
The short answer is yes. But it depends on what species you are eating and where along the river you caught it.
There are also very strict limitations on how frequently you should eat them, according to the web site for the Ohio Sport Fish Consumption Advisory, part of the Ohio Department of Health.
In areas of the river between the Belleville Lock, located 204 miles downstream from the river’s origins in Pittsburgh, to the Indiana border, the advisory agency currently recommends consuming Ohio River fish no more than once a month max. That area includes Adams, Brown, Clermont, Gallia, Hamilton, Lawrence, Meigs and Scioto counties.
Here’s where to check
Recommendations change throughout the year, but you can keep up by visiting the Ohio Department of Health’s Sport Fish Consumption Advisory page, which provides updated information on when certain fish, usually bottom feeders such as carp, are deemed too dangerous to eat at all.
Here’s who should take a pass on Ohio River fish
The agency also warns that people who are more likely to have health effects from eating contaminated fish, includingchildren younger than 15 years old, pregnant women and women who are planning to become pregnant to avoid Ohio River fish altogether.
Just because you have to limit the amount of fish you eat, doesn’t mean the river is a bad place for fishing, as long as you limit your intake or do catch-and-release fishing. Just make sure you have a proper fishing license before casting your line.
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It isn’t over until it’s over. That’s the case for both the UCLA Bruins football program recruiting and for quarterback Brady Edmunds. Edmunds is currently committed to head to Ohio State but he took a visit from UCLA offensive coordinator Dean Kennedy earlier this week.
Kennedy met Edmunds on Thursday despite the fact that the quarterback has been committed to the Buckeyes since December of 2024 but could the UCLA Bruins be making a run at flipping the quarterback?
Edmunds has only had an official visit with Ohio State but could UCLA heave a heat check on the 6’5” quarterback? New UCLA head coach Bob Chesney is off to an unbelievable start to his recruiting with the Bruins and flipping a recruit of Edmunds’ caliber would be his most impressive move yet.
247 Sports has Edmunds as the No. 16 quarterback in the class, which would give UCLA a clear predecessor for Nico Iamaleava whenever the Bruins current starting quarterback decides to head to the professional level.
It’d be a full circle moment for the Bruins, as Edmunds was originally recruited to Ohio State by former UCLA head coach Chip Kelly, who bailed on UCLA to go run the Buckeyes offense. Ohio State is a great spot for a developing quarterback, as the Buckeyes produce tons of NFL talent, especially at the wide receiver position, which would help Edmunds put up some gaudy numbers in Columbus.
Chesney and the Bruins have geography on their side, Edmunds attends Huntington Beach High School in Southern California, which could potentially become a factor if Edmunds views UCLA as a program on the rise that’d be much closer to his friends and family than out in Ohio.
Time will tell if Kennedy’s visit will make a difference but UCLA’s recruiting has made waves in the first offseason under Chesney and the new regime.
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