Gavril Sandu, 53, a Romanian national, has been extradited from Romania to Charlotte and appeared Monday in federal court to face bank fraud charges tied to an alleged "vishing" scheme. Sandu was arrested overseas earlier this year and transferred to the United States to answer a long-standing indictment. If convicted, the charges in that indictment carry a maximum prison term of 30 years.
According to a press release from the U.S. Attorney's Office in Charlotte, a federal grand jury returned the indictment on Nov. 14, 2017, charging Sandu with one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud and one count of bank fraud. The office says Sandu was arrested in Romania on Jan. 9, 2026, and was extradited to the United States on Apr. 30, 2026. "Greed crosses borders, but so does our relentless pursuit of justice," U.S. Attorney Russ Ferguson said in the statement, per U.S. Attorney's Office, Western District of North Carolina.
How prosecutors say the vishing ring worked
Prosecutors say the alleged fraud ran from May 2009 to October 2010, when Sandu and co-conspirators allegedly hacked small businesses' Voice over Internet Protocol systems and used automated scripts to call bank customers and trick them into revealing debit-card numbers and PINs. The indictment alleges Sandu then encoded the stolen data onto magnetic-stripe cards, withdrew funds at ATMs, and passed a cut of the cash back to co-conspirators. Those details were highlighted by the U.S. Attorney's Office on its social media feed; see U.S. Attorney's Office WDNC.
Legal charges and next steps
Sandu appeared before a federal judge in Charlotte and was placed in federal custody after the hearing, the U.S. Attorney's Office reports. Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Warren is prosecuting the case, and the FBI in Charlotte led the investigation, with assistance from the Justice Department's Office of International Affairs and Romanian authorities. If convicted on the counts alleged in the indictment, Sandu faces a statutory maximum of 30 years in prison, according to U.S. Attorney's Office, Western District of North Carolina.
Context and precedent
Extraditions for vishing schemes are not new. U.S. prosecutors have previously flown Romanian suspects to American courts in cases involving automated calls or texts that harvested bank credentials and funneled proceeds abroad. Reporting on earlier extraditions and prosecutions shows those operations have cost victims millions and required close cooperation between U.S. and Romanian authorities, per CyberScoop. That history helps explain why prosecutors in Charlotte emphasized international coordination in this case.
The case is ongoing; prosecutors have not announced a trial date, and Sandu remains in federal custody. The charges are allegations, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in court.
