Romanian National Sentenced for Money Laundering Scheme Involving Fake Vacation Rentals

LEXINGTON, Ky. - A Romanian National, Liviu Mihai Dumitru, 44, was sentenced to 48 months' incarceration on Wednesday by U.S. District Judge Karen Caldwell for conspiracy to commit money laundering.

Dumitru created and ran a software platform from January 2016 to September 2023 that helped its users carry out online auction fraud and vacation rental fraud. The platform offered tools for producing ads, creating and managing invoices, and handling payments, all designed to support these fraudulent schemes.

Users of Dumitru's platform, including Ionut-Razvan Sandu and Dumitru's co-conspirator, Mihai Daniel Dan, posted fraudulent ads on sites like eBay, Craigslist, and Airbnb, advertising cars or vacation rentals that did not exist. They paid for access to Dumitru's platform, which helped them generate fake ads, create spoofed websites that mimicked legitimate listing pages, and integrate payment mechanisms.

Once victims were persuaded the listings were real, the Users sent them convincing invoices generated through the platform. The platform also notified Users when victims submitted payment. Many victims were encouraged to pay in cryptocurrency. For a period of time, Dumitru's platform helped create cryptocurrency addresses managed through Coinbase accounts registered under false identities.

Dumitru admitted to operating the platform for 99 months, and conceded at least 14,000 individuals were victimized through its use. If you feel that you have been victimized by this scheme, please visit [insert victim website link - get from Jenny] and provide all available information to support your claim.

Mihai Dan, Dumitru's co-defendant, is pending extradition in the United States.

Jason Parman, First Assistant United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky, and Robert Holman, Special Agent in Charge, U.S. Secret Service, jointly announced the sentence.

The investigation was conducted by the U.S. Secret Service. Assistance was provided by the Romanian National Police (Service for Combating Cybercrime) and the Romanian Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism (Agency for Prosecuting Organized Crime). The Justice Department's Office of International Affairs provided significant support.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Kathryn Dieruf is prosecuting the case on behalf of the United States.

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