Its not romania's fault.
He was in Italy, trying to steal from an Italian bank.

As far as I understood it was Italian companies trying to hire him....

According to BBC, Romanian gangs are biggest threat to unsuspecting & innocent UK bank ATM customers. Gmike hope you get done by this brillint dude. Even the oyster card and the UK & American machine readable passports can be easily cloned and fake pound notes printed to heart's delight. What one must realise is that this is Crime and the pain & agony such people cause to their victims. I personally feel such criminal minds should be tagged & banned for atleast 10 years as conviction from their crime and entering the uk. Crime should never be condoned or praised and Romania is sending very wrong signals and creating bad precedent for the EU member states.

Best career move indeed. Maybe it is maybe its not a strange decision by software companies to make, but it makes sense to hire ex hackers to beef up security. Hope this dude all the best and a prosperous career.