Four Guilty in $760k Church Theft Spree; Florida Authorities Hunt Two Suspects
Four men from Florida were found guilty and two more are wanted for stealing $760,000 from churches across the state and the country.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement said that four men were arrested and two others are being sought after they were accused of stealing thousands of gift checks from church mailboxes all over the Sunshine State and Florida.
The Cape Coral Police Department found that money had been stolen from 24 churches in the area and a few outside the area in December 2020. This is when the investigation began. It was found that the six suspects, all from Orlando and aged 33 to 39, had taken gift checks from church mailboxes. They were Ionut Raducan, Marius Dumitru, Viorel Dumitru, Panait Dumitru, Catalin Trandafir, and Simona Trandafir.
Police said the guys would attack up to 85 churches every day, sometimes in Florida and sometimes in other states.
The men deposited the stolen checks into several bank accounts under different names. After the funds were posted, they used ATMs to get the money before the bank found out there was a problem.
Investigators say that all six suspects are from Romania and sent some of the money to their home country through wire transfers.
The FDLE said the guys stole more than $761k from more than 680 churches across the country.
Catalin Trandafir, Simona Trandafir, Panait Dumitru, Raducan, and Viorel Dumitru were recently found guilty, but Marius Dumitru and Viorel Dumitru have not been caught yet.
It is asked that anyone who knows where the two guys are call the FDLE in Fort Myers at 239-278-7170.
