Four men from Florida were arrested, and two more are still being looked for after they allegedly stole thousands of donation checks from church mailboxes across the state, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
The investigation began in December 2020 when the Cape Coral Police Department found that money had been stolen from 24 churches and others outside the area. The six suspects— Ionut Raducan, 33, Marius Dumitru, 27, Viorel Dumitru, 34, Panait Dumitru, 32, Catalin Trandafir, 45, and Simona Trandafir, 39—all from Orlando, were found to be behind the thefts.
The men would visit up to 85 churches a day, both in Florida and other states. They used different fake names to deposit the stolen checks into several bank accounts and then withdrew the money quickly before the banks noticed.
All six suspects are from Romania and sent some of the stolen money to Romania via wire transfers.
In total, they stole more than $761,000 from over 680 churches across the country. Catalin Trandafir, Simona Trandafir, Panait Dumitru, and Ionut Raducan have been convicted, while Viorel Dumitru and Marius Dumitru are still on the run.