{"id":1150115,"date":"2021-12-24T10:49:42","date_gmt":"2021-12-24T15:49:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1150115"},"modified":"2021-12-24T10:49:45","modified_gmt":"2021-12-24T15:49:45","slug":"four-years-in-prison-for-foreign-national-who-used-stolen-checks-from-churches-other-religious-institutions-to-purchase-bmw","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/four-years-in-prison-for-foreign-national-who-used-stolen-checks-from-churches-other-religious-institutions-to-purchase-bmw\/","title":{"rendered":"Four Years In Prison For Foreign National Who Used Stolen Checks From Churches, Other Religious Institutions To Purchase BMW"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">38<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Ffour-years-in-prison-for-foreign-national-who-used-stolen-checks-from-churches-other-religious-institutions-to-purchase-bmw%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1150115&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>A foreign national was sentenced to just over four years in prison and ordered to pay one million dollars in restitution for conspiracy involving the theft of more than 2,000 checks from religious institutions including churches.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>In June, Nicolae Gindac, a Romanian national from Dania Beach, Florida, pleaded guilty for aiding in the theft of the checks from several religious institutions, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/usao-md\/pr\/romanian-national-pleads-guilty-his-role-conspiracy-steal-over-2000-checks-intended\">according<\/a> to authorities in the District of Maryland. He faced a maximum of 30 years.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>On <a href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/usao-md\/pr\/florida-man-sentenced-over-four-years-prison-bank-fraud-and-wire-fraud-conspiracy\">Wednesday<\/a>, U.S. District Judge Theodore D. Chuang handed down a sentence of 54 months and ordered that Gindac, 52, pay more than a million dollars in restitution alongside his co-conspirators. According to the original <a href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/usao-md\/pr\/six-foreign-nationals-and-bank-employee-facing-federal-indictment-maryland-scheme-defraud\">indictment<\/a>, Gindac and several others stole checks meant for churches in Ellicott City and La Plata, Maryland.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>From June 2018 to January 2021, Gindac and at least five others stole checks from church mailboxes.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>According to Maryland authorities, they \u201cstole and negotiated checks from the U.S. mail intended for religious institutions. Gindac\u2019s co-conspirators executed the thefts by driving to roadside mailboxes and directly removing the mail from the religious institutions\u2019 mailboxes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The investigation into Gindac and his accomplices involved many departments, including the U.S. Postal Investigation Service, Homeland Security Investigations, Montgomery County Police Department, the Cary, North Carolina Police Department, and the Williamson County, Tennessee Police Department.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGindac deposited or was present when at least $64,811.03 was deposited into 13 fraudulent accounts,\u201d authorities noted. \u201cThe fraudulent accounts received a total of approximately $139,057.58 from 143 stolen checks.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>When he was arrested in February this year, he had nearly $8,000 in cash, a gold and diamond-encrusted Rolex watch, and a BMW sports sedan he purchased with stolen money.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Several of his partners have also been extradited to the U.S. for trial, one from Romania and another from the United Kingdom. Four others are waiting to be sentenced after pleading guilty to their part in the conspiracy.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The original indictment also said that Diape Seck, of Maryland, was also allegedly involved in the conspiracy, helping Gindac and his partners opening more than 400 checking accounts at a bank where he was employed \u201crelying predominantly on Romanian passports and driver\u2019s license information\u201d for the conspirators.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Authorities said that stolen checks to and from churches and other religious institutions were deposited into these fraudulent bank accounts.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGindac deposited stolen checks into fraudulent bank accounts held in the names of his family members, including a minor family member, and others,\u201d the press release announcing Gindac\u2019s sentencing explained. \u201cGindac and his co-conspirators subsequently withdrew the stolen funds and spent them using debit cards associated with fraudulently opened bank accounts and other bank accounts.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Earlier this month, cash and checks were found in the walls of Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas, leading some to <a href=\"https:\/\/abc7chicago.com\/joel-osteen-lakewood-church-houston-theft-2014\/11308205\/\">speculate<\/a> that the money might be tied to a robbery at the church back in 2014.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cChurch members stated that during a renovation project, a large amount of money-including cash, checks, and money orders-was found inside a wall,\u201d Houston Police <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/houstonpolice\/status\/1466885216677597191?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1466885216677597191%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fabc7chicago.com%2Fjoel-osteen-lakewood-church-houston-theft-2014%2F11308205%2F\">said.<\/a> \u201cBurglary and theft officers responded and began investigating.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Daily Wire is one of America\u2019s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/subscribe\"> member<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A foreign national was sentenced to just over four years in prison and ordered to pay one million dollars in restitution for conspiracy involving the theft of more than 2,000 checks from religious institutions including churches.\u00a0 In June, Nicolae Gindac, a Romanian national from Dania Beach, Florida, pleaded guilty for aiding in the theft of &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":200,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1150115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1150115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/200"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1150115"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1150115\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1150115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1150115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1150115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}