Woman Pleads Guilty In Skimming Scheme That Hit Monroe Bank

HARTFORD, CT — An Ohio woman pleaded guilty Friday in Hartford federal court to her role in a scheme to steal hundreds of thousands of dollars using ATM skimming in several Connecticut towns, including Monroe, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney District of Connecticut. Maya Florina Luiza DeSteffano pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bank fraud and aggravated identity theft, the release said.

For several months in 2017, a Connecticut bank experienced more than 30 skimming incidents at locations in Monroe, Stratford, Trumbull, Greenwich, Fairfield and other places in the state. People were placing skimming devices at the machines to capture account numbers and PINs from customers, and then exploiting the information to create substitute ATM cards, which they used to get money and make purchases, according to the news release. The bank lost almost $300,000 during the scheme.

DeSteffano, 61, of Cleveland, admitted to installing and removing skimming equipment and using re-encoded cards and PINs, the news release said. She also admitted to participating in similar schemes in Virginia, Maryland and Georgia. She faces up to 30 years for the fraud charge and two years for the identity theft charge, according to the news release. Her sentencing is scheduled for Nov. 22.

On Aug. 23, a co-conspirator of DeSteffano in the Connecticut scheme pleaded guilty to the same charges. George Dragusin also admitted to participating in skimming in Nevada, Illinois, Ohio, Indiana and California — activity that caused multiple banks to lose almost $650,000 in total, the news release said. Dragusin, a citizen of Romania, is detained pending sentencing.