Constantin Sandu, a Romanian national, recently pleaded guilty to masterminding a scheme that defrauded California's unemployment insurance system of more than $5 million, money intended to help workers impacted by the pandemic, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of California. This guilty plea and the uncovering of Sandu's elaborate fraud operation were unexpectedly the result of investigators in San Diego probing a series of jewelry thefts in the area, as NBC 7 San Diego reported at that time.
Federal authorities discovered Sandu's extensive criminal network involving at least 213 unnamed Romanian co-conspirators based in California and Romania, who worked together to fraudulently obtain millions of dollars in unemployment insurance benefits by fabricating documents, creating fictitious accounts and businesses, and filing bogus claims with California's Economic Development Department (EDD), which administers the state's unemployment benefits, as detailed in a prior IRS press release.
Sandu's operation, active from July 2020 to late summer of 2022, exploited and manipulated the EDD system by using fraudulent identification documents, falsified utility bills, fake earnings statements, fabricated W2s, and counterfeit health insurance cards, all tied to non-existent companies. Co-conspirators cooperated with Sandu providing their personal identifying information (PII) to allow Sandu to file claims for regular unemployment insurance benefits and expanded pandemic unemployment insurance benefits from the California EDD.
The forging of documents wasn't the only technique employed by Sandu and his network; they also "backdated” or modified the EDD applications with earlier unemployment start dates to generate even larger payouts. Authorities could not find any legitimate businesses or health insurance member identification numbers corresponding to the ones submitted for unemployment claims.
Law enforcement agents arrested Sandu on March 1, 2023, at the Imperial Beach Border Patrol Station. As part of his guilty plea, Sandu agreed to forfeit $214,950 of the proceeds he personally received from committing these offenses. His sentencing is scheduled for October 16, 2023.
The initial discovery of Sandu's fraud operation began while authorities were investigating a series of street jewelry thefts in San Diego, which led them to uncover Sandu's involvement in both the thefts and the unemployment benefits fraud. Investigators found that Romanian organized crime groups were involved in numerous jewelry thefts, frauds, and swindles throughout Southern California. A total of 13 arrests have been made in connection to the jewelry thefts, and at least 30 more people are sought for questioning, as NBC 7 San Diego mentioned.
