Overview
- Police in Nashua arrested 36-year-old Alexandru Victorian Ispas on July 1 after officers watched him make repeated ATM withdrawals and stopped his vehicle.
- Ispas faces state felony charges for theft, identity fraud and forgery plus a misdemeanor for disobeying an officer and remains in custody.
- Officers seized about $19,600 in cash at the arrest along with suspected cloned EBT cards, card-encoding devices and a counterfeit passport.
- Investigators attribute more than $100,000 in unauthorized TANF withdrawals across Maine and New Hampshire to the scheme and say more federal charges are likely.
- The probe began when Maine’s DHHS detected unusual TANF ATM withdrawals in late 2025, highlighting how cloned EBT cards can quickly drain cash benefits meant for low-income families.