A Romanian man, who stole $2,100 from the Arnold Walmart, has been sentenced to two years in prison after admitting to using sleight of hand to steal at least $130,000 in money and property from Walmart stores in at least 18 states, the U.S. District Attorney’s Office reported.
U.S. District Judge Matthew T. Schelp on Dec. 11 sentenced Suras Rostas, 22, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri. In September, Rostas pleaded guilty to two counts of wire fraud, according to court documents.
U.S. assistant attorney Justin Ladendorf said in court that Rostas entered the country illegally in 2023 and had been running the scheme since arriving despite previous arrests and convictions, the U.S. District Attorney’s Office said in a statement.
Schelp also ordered Rostas to repay $135,290 to Walmart and for Rostas’ sentence to run consecutive to pending cases in Idaho, Arkansas, Florida and St. Louis County, according to the U.S. District Attorney’s Office.
“Frankly, I don’t appreciate your disdain for America and American laws,” Schelp said during sentencing hearing in U.S. District Court in St. Louis.
The Jefferson County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office on April 25 charged Rostas for stealing, a class D felony punishable for up to seven years in prison, for the theft at the Walmart store, 2201 Michigan Ave., in Arnold. The U.S. District Attorney’s Office did not say if Rostas’ federal sentence would run consecutive to any punishment he receives in Jefferson County.
Rostas also has been charged with forgery, a class D felony, in St. Louis County. He allegedly attempted to use a fake Kansas driver’s license to enter the River City Casino in July 2023, and he had $12,000 in cash at the time of his arrest, court documents show.
Rostas is scheduled to be arraigned in Jefferson County on Jan. 28, and he is scheduled to appear in St. Louis County court on Feb. 3, court records show.
According to the guilty plea agreement in the federal case, between April 2023 and October 2024, Rosta completed at least 45 fraudulent transactions at Walmart stores in at least 18 states.
After cashiers scanned merchandise or began processing an electronic money transfer, Rostas counted money into piles that added up to at least the full amount of the transaction and handed the piles one at a time to cashiers. He then took the cash back, gathered it into a pile and slipped bills from the bottom of the stack into his pocket, sometimes while someone distracted the cashiers, the guilty plea said.
If a cashier tried to recount the money, Rostas repeated those steps until the cashiers relented and put the money into their drawers without recounting it. Rostas then regularly returned the purchased items for a full cash refund, according to the plea.
According to a probable-cause statement filed by Arnold Police in August 2023, Rostas executed his scheme at Walmart’s location in the city on July 26, 2023. He purchased merchandise for $3,017.29, but he kept $2,100 by folding the money and slipping it into his pocket while confusing the cashier by constantly taking and returning money to the cashier.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations, Missouri State Highway Patrol and Arnold Police investigated the case.