A 27-year-old Romanian fugitive accused of running a nationwide scheme that sold fictitious farm equipment to buyers across the country has been captured near Seattle, Washington, after more than a year on the run. Bogdan Alexandru Gherghevici now faces extradition back to Georgia, where a federal grand jury indicted him on 16 counts including wire fraud and aggravated identity theft.
Gherghevici had been indicted in August 2025 but fled prosecution and evaded federal agents for over a year, operating under the alias Victor Zema while unlawfully present in the United States, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. As reported by WSB-TV, he was ultimately arrested near Seattle, and Western District of Washington Magistrate Judge Brian A. Tsuchida has since ordered his extradition to Georgia to face the charges.
Prosecutors say Gherghevici and a co-defendant defrauded more than a dozen prospective buyers, causing more than $600,000 in total losses. Federal authorities allege many of the victims were elderly, a detail that fits a broader national pattern: the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center reported that online fraud losses in the United States topped $20 billion in 2025, with older adults suffering the heaviest financial losses from online scams, according to the FBI.
How the Scheme Hijacked a Real Dealership's Identity
The fraud operation traced back to a hacked and hijacked website that had formerly belonged to Ace Equipment Company, a legitimate dealership in Blackshear, Georgia, that had been sold to a timber company back in 2020, the Waycross Journal-Herald reported. Scammers impersonated the former dealership's owners during phone sales, using false representations to persuade victims to wire money directly into the defendants' bank accounts.
Conspirators told buyers that machinery would be delivered within days or weeks, then ceased all communication once the funds arrived, according to WSB-TV. Victims across the country wired payments ranging from $20,000 to $94,900 for farm equipment that never existed, with reported cases stretching as far as Colorado, Texas, Minnesota, and New York, per the same Waycross Journal-Herald account. The law enforcement response began after a victim reported suspicious activity involving the purported Blackshear farm equipment dealer in May 2025.
A Rare Solve for a Cross-Border Identity Theft Case
Pierce County Sheriff Ramsey Bennett called the case one of the largest identity theft investigations in the county's history, and one of the few instances where law enforcement successfully identified and arrested suspects, the Waycross Journal-Herald reported. The Pierce County Sheriff's Office and Homeland Security Investigations worked together to determine that the purported farm equipment business was fraudulent and to identify Viorel Cristea and Gherghevici as conspirators.
Authorities, including the Pierce County Sheriff's Office, Homeland Security Investigations, and the National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center, seized the fraudulent website in May 2025 to stop ongoing victim solicitations. Bennett praised the joint law enforcement response, saying the prosecution demonstrated cooperation between federal and local law enforcement, according to WSB-TV.
Co-Defendant Already Sentenced, Deportation Ordered
Gherghevici's co-defendant, 33-year-old Viorel Cristea, was arrested in Miami in May 2025. Cristea pleaded guilty in March 2026 to one count of wire fraud, and U.S. District Judge R. Stan Baker sentenced him to 21 months in prison, ordered him to pay $679,100 in restitution to victims, and set him up for mandatory deportation after completing his sentence, per WSB-TV.
Steven N. Schrank, special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations in Georgia and Alabama, said fleeing prosecution does not erase harm to victims or stop HSI from pursuing justice, according to WSB-TV. The investigation was led by the Homeland Security Investigations Savannah Field Office, and Gherghevici's prosecution will be handled by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Ryan Bondura, Olivia Brame, and L. Alexander Hamner.
What Gherghevici Faces Back in Georgia
U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Georgia Margaret E. Heap said law enforcement partnerships will send Gherghevici back to answer for the alleged conduct, and that the case should help victims achieve closure, per WSB-TV. Heap also said financial scams place an extra burden on Georgia farmers.
If convicted on all counts, Gherghevici faces up to 20 years in prison for each wire fraud charge under 18 U.S.C. § 1343, plus a mandatory two-year consecutive prison sentence for aggravated identity theft under 18 U.S.C. § 1028A, according to the Justice Department. That mandatory enhancement cannot run concurrently with the underlying fraud counts, meaning his potential prison exposure stacks well beyond his co-defendant's 21-month sentence. Gherghevici will now be transferred to the Southern District of Georgia to face the charges outlined in his 2025 indictment.
