Three Arrested In Gift Card Scheme

As more layers are peeled back in the ongoing saga of government fraud, the pattern emerging is nothing short of staggering—and deeply unsettling. In Minnesota, what began as shocking revelations about massive taxpayer fraud involving Somali-run organizations has turned into a much broader red flag.

The billions stolen there appear not as an isolated event, but rather a single, exposed node in a sprawling national network of deception. And the signs suggest this is happening across the country: California, Utah, and now Texas are under scrutiny for similarly egregious schemes.


The latest jaw-dropping development comes from Dallas County, Texas, where three Latvian nationals—Kristians Petrovskis, Romunds Cubrevics, and Nurmunds Ulevicus—were arrested in connection with a $14 million gift card fraud operation. According to the Texas Financial Crimes Intelligence Center, the suspects were found with over 400 cloned gift cards, the tools of a scheme that had been running like clockwork.

Their method? Disturbingly simple. They stole unactivated gift cards from kiosks, copied the card information, then resealed the packages and returned them to the shelves—making it nearly impossible for the average consumer to detect the tampering.

The men allegedly admitted to entering the United States specifically to commit fraud, hitting up to ten stores a day, every day, for months. Since May, the financial damage has ballooned into the millions—and yet, this case may barely scratch the surface of what is quickly becoming a systemic issue.


This isn’t just about stolen gift cards or even tax dollars. It’s about a larger, more alarming trend: foreign nationals exploiting weaknesses in U.S. enforcement, enabled by loose immigration controls and porous financial oversight. The implications are chilling—because if organized fraud like this can operate for months without detection, how much more is going on under the radar?

Consumers are being warned to inspect gift cards before purchase, looking for signs like excess glue or tampered packaging. But the bigger picture points to a failure of leadership, accountability, and enforcement. While the social media claim that “the Democrat party is the party of fraud” may be provocative, it reflects a growing public sentiment that too many of these crimes are flourishing in blue-run states and cities with soft policies on crime and immigration.

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