A set of Kern County criminal cases against a Romanian welfare fraud scheme has taken a, perhaps unsurprising, turn: a prime suspect and two other individuals were arrested on fresh fraud charges as part of furthering their scheme.
Los Angeles County prosecutors charged Norbert Karaba, a man Kern County authorities arrested in January, with 40 additional felony fraud charges while out of Kern County Jail on bail posted by the Romanian Gypsy Church of Riverside.
The backstory: Karaba was arrested earlier in 2025 with 78 cloned EBT cards and almost $64,000 in stolen cash.
- The Southern California-based Gypsy Church posted $200,000 in bail to Kern County Superior Court to secure the release of Karaba and two other men over the course of the year in what prosecutors allege is an international crime ring that has harvested thousands of welfare-based tax dollars in Kern County.
- One of Karaba’s alleged co-conspirators, Bogdan Boceanu, had his bail denied by a Kern County judge when he was arrested last month.
Driving the news: Karaba was arrested in Los Angeles County with two other men, Nicolae Bud and Giorgio Marcelo in Northridge over the weekend.
- The new charges against Karaba include 25 felony counts of unauthorized use of identifying information, while Marcelo faces 99 counts of theft by forged or invalid credit cards and computer access to defraud.
- The arrest and new charges come amid collaboration between the Kern County and Los Angeles County District Attorneys Office, California’s Department of Social Services, and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Office.
- The three Romanian defendants are on a no-bail hold in Los Angeles County Jail and await a judge for arraignment.
What they’re saying: Bobby Doru Moise, the pastor of the Romanian Gypsy Church in Riverside, told reporters he regretted authorizing the funds to post Karaba’s bail, per a report from KGET.
