A man has been sentenced to two years after pleading guilty to stealing debit card information from hundreds of Central Texans in a skimming operation run out of a San Antonio-area short-term rental. Cristian Aron Broinas built and deployed the devices himself, according to investigators, before authorities raided the property and found what they describe as a small-scale fraud factory.
According to KSAT, the Texas Financial Crimes Intelligence Center began investigating Broinas's role in the operation in December 2025. Investigators say he manufactured and used skimming devices to record card information at the rental property, and the resulting search turned up more than 240 skimming devices, 773 re-encoded payment cards, 12 fraudulent identification documents and passports carrying different identities, counterfeit card-making equipment, and roughly $6,000 in cash. Per the FCIC, the scheme affected hundreds of victims.
Arrest, Plea, and a Sentence That Doesn't Match the Haul
Broinas was charged with unlawful interception, use, or disclosure of wire, oral, or electronic communications. He pleaded guilty.
The two-year term stands in sharp contrast to sentencing outcomes in other recent Texas skimming cases tied to the same statewide task force. In July, the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation announced that three members of a Romanian card skimming ring received sentences of 20 to 30 years in prison after building skimmers and counterfeit cards inside a Dallas-area Airbnb stash house, a case that similarly involved recovering over 150 skimmers and counterfeit card equipment from a short-term rental. The defendants in that case pleaded guilty to multiple felony charges, including Engaging in Organized Criminal Activity, and received far longer sentences than the single wire-interception charge Broinas faced.
A Pattern of Rental-Based Skimming Labs
The case fits a broader pattern the Texas Financial Crimes Intelligence Center has documented across the state: transnational crime groups using short-term rentals as temporary manufacturing labs for skimming hardware, counterfeit IDs, and cloned cards. Late in July, the center also announced the arrest of three additional Romanian nationals in San Antonio accused of running a separate, statewide EBT and credit card skimming scheme that targeted payment terminals across West and Central Texas, with suspects allegedly traveling between retail hubs to deploy point-of-sale devices, according to the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation. Hoodline previously covered that San Antonio arrest.
The FCIC, headquartered in Tyler, was established under House Bill 2106 by the 87th Texas Legislature and had been operating for two years by January 2024. The center was described as the first of its kind in the nation, according to the Tyler Morning Telegraph. In its first two years, the center reported preventing $171.5 million in potential losses while seizing 445 card skimmers and 5,574 fraudulent credit cards statewide.
How Texas Law Splits Skimming Charges
Broinas was charged under Texas Penal Code Section 16.02 with unlawful interception, use, or disclosure of wire, oral, or electronic communications.
The Broinas case involved payment-card skimming by a Romanian national.
Enforcement Sweeps Continue Statewide
Enforcement efforts against skimming continue statewide. San Antonio Police Department officers alone recovered 40 card-skimming devices across the city in 2025.
The state's oversight rules are also part of the broader response. The Texas Financial Crimes Intelligence Center continues to urge consumers to inspect card readers before use, cover the keypad when entering a PIN, monitor account activity closely, and report suspicious transactions to their bank.
