Latest news with #Muntean
Extra.ie
10-07-2025
- Extra.ie
Man who claimed covid payments of six people receives jail sentence
An unemployed father of four who could not explain almost €60,000 lodged into his accounts and who was receiving six other people's Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP) has been jailed. Stefan Muntean, a Romanian with an address at Meadowbrook, Athlone, Co. Westmeath, was handed a three-year sentence by Judge Keenan Johnson at Mullingar Circuit Criminal Court. The 39-year-old, who was on social welfare, pleaded guilty to money laundering using his account in his local credit union and the finance app Revolut, and welfare fraud in 2022. A man who claimed COVID-19 payments for six people has received a jail sentence. Pic: Gareth Chaney Collins The investigation was triggered when the Garda National Economic Crime Bureau became aware of suspicious transactions. Det Garda Kenneth Nerney stated that from July 1 to October 24, 2022, Muntean had €48,752 deposited into his Revolut account. The source of the funds could not be identified, with Muntean telling gardaí that friends or relatives transferred money to him. Unexplained cash lodgements to his credit union account came to about €11,000 from May 18 to November 25, 2022. A man who claimed COVID-19 payments for six people has received a jail sentence. Pic: KarlM Photography/Shutterstock Det Garda James Martin stated that the investigation identified six PPS numbers of people who were not living in Ireland at the time but who were receiving PUP support, totalling €16,786, and which was also paid into Muntean's credit union account. The PUP was a temporary social welfare payment for people who were out of work due to COVID-19. Muntean, who has previous convictions for theft and trespass, spent €90,000 in an online casino and withdrew €68,622 from his gambling account. He had been entitled to a carer's allowance to look after his father and had worked intermittently. Gardaí accepted he had no display of wealth, the court heard. Defence counsel Desmond Dockery said Muntean, who came to Ireland almost 20 years ago, was a member of the Roma community who suffered with health problems, had a gambling habit, and now lives in squalor and was estranged from his family. Judge Johnson sentenced Muntean to five years and six months' imprisonment, but suspended two and a half years on the condition that he did not reoffend for five years. A concurrent two-year term was imposed for the PUP fraud.
Sunday World
09-07-2025
- Sunday World
Unemployed father-of-four jailed for €60k suspected crime proceeds and benefits fraud
Stefan Muntean was handed a three-year sentence by Judge Keenan Johnson at Mullingar Circuit Criminal Court An unemployed father of four who could not explain almost €60,000 lodged into his accounts over four months and was receiving six other people's Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP) has been jailed. Stefan Muntean, a Romanian national with an address at Meadowbrook, Athlone, Co. Westmeath, was handed a three-year sentence by Judge Keenan Johnson at Mullingar Circuit Criminal Court. The 39-year-old, who was on social welfare, pleaded guilty to money laundering using his account in his local credit union and the finance app Revolut, and welfare fraud in 2022. The investigation was triggered when the Garda National Economic Crime Bureau's financial intelligence unit became aware of suspicious transactions. Athlone based Detective Garda Kenneth Nerney from July 1 to October 24, 2022, Muntean had €48,752 put through his Revolut account. The source of these funds could not be identified, with Muntean telling officers that unnamed friends or relatives transferred some money to him. Unexplained cash lodgements to his credit union account came to about €11,000 from May 18 to November 25, 2022. Detective Garda James Martin stated that the probe identified six PPS numbers of individuals not residing in Ireland at the time but who were receiving PUP support, totalling €16,786, and which was also paid into Muntean's credit union account. The PUP was a temporary social welfare payment for employees and self-employed individuals who were out of work due to COVID-19. Judge Johnson described them as serious offences that were a fraud on the State Over that time, he spent €90,000 in an online casino and withdrew €68,622 from his gambling account. Muntean, with prior convictions for theft and trespass, had been entitled to a carer's allowance to look after his father and had worked intermittently. Gardaí accepted he had no display of wealth, the court heard. Desmond Dockery SC, defending, said his client was admitting he was reckless in allowing his account to be used for the pandemic payments. Stefan Muntean Today's News in 90 Seconds - July 9th In a plea for leniency, the defence said Muntean, who came to Ireland almost 20 years ago, was a member of the Roma community who suffered with health issues, had a gambling habit, and now lives in squalor and was estranged from his family. The accused, who listened to the proceedings with the aid of an interpreter, did not address the court. Passing sentence, Judge Johnson said the money laundering offence attracted a headline prison term of seven years. Taking into account his guilty plea and the mitigation, he reduced it to five years and six months. However, he suspended two and a half years on condition that Muntean did not reoffend for five years. A concurrent two-year term was imposed for the PUP fraud.
Irish Examiner
09-07-2025
- Irish Examiner
Man with an unexplained €60k in his account jailed for receiving six other people's covid benefits
An unemployed father of four who could not explain almost €60,000 lodged into his accounts over four months and was receiving six other people's Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP) has been jailed. Stefan Muntean, a Romanian national with an address at Meadowbrook, Athlone, Co Westmeath, was handed a three-year sentence by Judge Keenan Johnson at Mullingar Circuit Criminal Court. The 39-year-old, who was on social welfare, pleaded guilty to money laundering using his account in his local credit union and the finance app Revolut, and welfare fraud in 2022. The investigation was triggered when the Garda National Economic Crime Bureau's financial intelligence unit became aware of suspicious transactions. Athlone-based Detective Garda Kenneth Nerney said that from July 1 to October 24, 2022, Muntean had €48,752 put through his Revolut account. The source of these funds could not be identified, with Muntean telling officers that unnamed friends or relatives transferred some money to him. Unexplained cash lodgements to his credit union account came to about €11,000 from May 18 to November 25, 2022. Detective Garda James Martin stated that the probe identified six PPS numbers of individuals not residing in Ireland at the time but who were receiving PUP support, totalling €16,786, and which was also paid into Muntean's credit union account. The PUP was a temporary social welfare payment for employees and self-employed individuals who were out of work due to covid-19. Judge Johnson described them as serious offences that were a fraud on the State. Over that time, he spent €90,000 in an online casino and withdrew €68,622 from his gambling account. Muntean, with prior convictions for theft and trespass, had been entitled to a carer's allowance to look after his father and had worked intermittently. Gardaí accepted he had no display of wealth, the court heard. Desmond Dockery SC, defending, said his client was admitting he was reckless in allowing his account to be used for the pandemic payments. In a plea for leniency, the defence said Muntean, who came to Ireland almost 20 years ago, was a member of the Roma community who suffered with health issues, had a gambling habit, now lives in squalor and was estranged from his family. The accused, who listened to the proceedings with the aid of an interpreter, did not address the court. Passing sentence, Judge Johnson said the money laundering offence attracted a headline prison term of seven years. Taking into account his guilty plea and the mitigation, he reduced it to five years and six months. However, he suspended two and a half years on condition that Muntean did not re-offend for five years. A concurrent two-year term was imposed for the PUP fraud.
Yahoo
16-02-2025
- Yahoo
West Allis pawn shop jewelry theft; 2 men from out of state charged
The Brief More than $30,000 worth of jewelry was stolen from a West Allis pawn shop. Two men – one from New York, the other from Washington – are charged with theft. Court filings said the investigation involved authorities in Illinois and Indiana. WEST ALLIS, Wis. - More than $30,000 worth of jewelry was stolen from a West Allis pawn shop on Monday. Now, two men from opposite ends of the country are charged with theft in Milwaukee County. Court records identified 23-year-old Procoror Muntean and 26-year-old Retan Varga. Muntean is from Queens Village, New York. Varga is from Kent, Washington. Both men are yet to appear in court on the charges. SIGN UP TODAY: Get daily headlines, breaking news emails from FOX6 News The backstory West Allis police were called to Pawn America, at 76th and Lincoln, on Feb. 10. According to a criminal complaint, an employee told police that two men came in and asked to see some items from the jewelry case. Prosecutors said those men, since identified as Muntean and Varga, took several items to the cash registers where one of them asked about some shoes. When the employee went over to the shoes, the men said they needed to get $10,000 to buy the jewelry and then left the store. Approximately 15 minutes later, court filings said the employee noticed the jewelry he showed the men was missing. The items totaled more than $30,000. Dig deeper The day after the theft, court filings said a detective from Illinois contacted West Allis police to say one of the Pawn America theft suspects had stolen a watch worth $50,000 from a store there. Investigators then learned Muntean and Varga had been stopped in Indiana, where Muntean was taken into custody for operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated. In custody there, he admitted to stealing the watch in Illinois. FREE DOWNLOAD: Get breaking news alerts in the FOX LOCAL Mobile app for iOS or Android West Allis police reviewed photos of Muntean and Varga provided by authorities in Illinois. Comparing those photos to surveillance video from Pawn America, the complaint states detectives identified the suspects as Muntean and Varga. Pursuant to a search warrant, Indiana State Police searched the vehicle and found multiple pieces of jewelry believed to have been stolen from Pawn America. Court filings also noted that a Shorewood police detective contacted West Allis police on Feb. 12. The detective said Muntean and Varga were in a separate Feb. 10 theft in which an $8,000 bracelet was stolen from a jeweler. At this time, the men are not charged with theft from that jewelry. The Source Information in this report is from the Milwaukee County District Attorney's Office and Wisconsin Circuit Court.
Yahoo
06-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Flying's gotten safer — and less reported on. Washington crash shows how the aviation beat is fading
NEW YORK (AP) — Summoned from his couch to cover last week's plane disaster in Washington, CNN's Pete Muntean rushed in for the first of 24 live reports over the next 48 hours. At one point, he used a model airplane and helicopter to demonstrate. At another, he called President Trump 'unhinged' for speculating that diversity in hiring contributed to the crash. Even regular viewers may have wondered: Who is Pete Muntean, anyway? As CNN's aviation correspondent and a pilot who has flown near where the collision that killed 67 people took place, Muntean illustrates the changes in what used to be an important specialty in journalism. Precise numbers are hard to come by. But simply by the content out there, there are fewer reporters concentrating solely on what is a complex and technical beat, both because of how the business has changed and the relative safety of flying. 'I realized that planes weren't crashing and I needed a new beat,' said Bill Adair, a former reporter who wrote a book, 'The Mystery of Flight 427: Inside a Crash Investigation,' about a 1994 plane crash in western Pennsylvania that killed 132 people. 'That's a good thing.' Adair switched to politics, and later created the fact-checking website PolitiFact. A son of two pilots, Muntean was born for the job Muntean, 36, was born for his job. Both of his parents were pilots, and he kept his passion for aviation even after his mother, Nancy Lynn, died when the plane she was flying in a Virginia air show crashed. Muntean was 18 at the time and witnessed it; he was the show's MC. Shortly after, he flew his first solo flight. He keeps a plane at a small Maryland airport now and takes to the sky when time allows. 'I don't think I could ever leave it,' he said. 'I love flying more than anything, and the next best thing is talking about it.' Muntean believes a major part of his job is translation, trying to put into plain English terminology that non-pilots can get lost in. He tries not to be glum about tragedies he occasionally needs to cover. 'I feel like I'm the guy who makes people afraid of flying,' he said, 'which is a real drag.' Aviation is his beat, but like many reporters who follow the industry now, it's not his sole area of concentration. He covers transportation in general. Tom Costello covers aviation for NBC News, but he also covers transportation, cybersecurity, space travel and economics. Jon Scott's main job is as a news anchor for Fox News but, as a pilot, he's involved in major aviation stories. The New York Times splits things up: Niraj Chokshi covers aviation and transportation, Mark Walker follows the National Transporation Safety Board and Christine Chung follows the airline industry from a consumer perspective. David Koenig was airlines writer for The Associated Press until his recent retirement; the AP says his job will be filled. A decline in specialists as news organizations face job cuts 'There are a lot of good reporters that cover aviation, but they are fewer than ever,' said Jon Ostrower, who has covered the industry for CNN and The Wall Street Journal and is now editor-in-chief of The Air Current, a subscription-based aviation news service. The news industry's economic struggles means there are less specialists in general in newsrooms. With safety a major component of the aviation beat, the fact that the last major U.S. commercial air crash before last week came in 2009 means there is less to do. 'I sympathize with editors,' Adair said. 'If you have limited resources, there is not a lot of merit in putting a reporter on a beat where things are working well.' Airline ownership consolidation means there are fewer reporters at regional newspapers knowledgeable about the industry because they have to follow the local company, Ostrower said. That assumes there are even many reporters at hollowed-out newspapers to do that. There's also much more flight tracking information easily available to the public through services like Flightradar24 and ADS-B Exchange than in years past. While helpful for journalists, that also increases the preponderance of armchair investigators clogging the Internet with less-than-informed theories, Ostrower said. And entities that offered training for reporters on aviation issues, including companies like Boeing and Pratt & Whitney, don't do it anymore, he said. To some experts, the shrinking of ranks on the aviation beat wasn't necessarily apparent after the Washington crash. Where it's likely to be noticed is in the weeks and months after, when the time comes to closely examine mechanical issues and policies that might need to be changed to prevent a recurrence. Who will be watching to see what lessons are learned? Watching his former intern on the job 'We've witnessed the dismantling of the department store approach to news,' said veteran science reporter Miles O'Brien. 'Everyone has a little boutique now. You can find experts, but it is incumbent upon the consumer to find trusted sources.' O'Brien and Ostrower have something in common: they've both been laid off by CNN. Cutbacks may have taken O'Brien's regular job, but producers come calling when news happens — so much so that he was put on a retainer by his old employer. He's made a handful of appearances following the Washington crash. When not on the air, O'Brien has been closely watching how Muntean — his former intern — covers the aviation beat. O'Brien, whose left arm was amputated following an accident in 2014, has talked about people with disabilities in the airline industry. In 2023, he earned a license to fly again. ___ David Bauder writes about the intersection of media and entertainment for the AP. Follow him at and logged more airtime
