California man sentenced in Russia inquiry

Cooperation has aided Mueller’s investigators

“Never did it cross my mind that the services I was providing were to be used in crimes at the highest level.” Richard Pinedo, convicted of identity fraud

WASHINGTON – A California man who unwittingly aided Russia’s campaign to interfere in the 2016 election by providing operatives access to fraudulent bank account information was sentenced Wednesday to six months in prison followed by six months of home confinement.

Richard Pinedo, 28, who cooperated with Justice Department special counsel Robert Mueller in the Russia inquiry, is the second target to be sentenced in the past two months.

Last month, former Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos was sentenced to two weeks in prison and fined $9,500 for lying to the FBI.

Though he cited Pinedo’s “significant” cooperation with federal investigators, U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich said the “widespread scale” of the identity fraud merited incarceration.

Friedrich said Pinedo’s actions “opened the door” for the exploitation of the financial network.

Pinedo, a former computer science student who had no connection to the Trump campaign, pleaded guilty this year to identity fraud as part of a scheme in which he acquired bank account information online and sold the information to anonymous buyers whose ranks included operatives linked to the Kremlin.

From 2014 to 2017, Pinedo earned $40,000 to $95,000 from the transactions, prosecutors said. There was no evidence he knew of Russia’s involvement or the buyers’ identities at the time.

In a brief statement, Pinedo apologized and described how his involvement in the high-profile investigation altered his life and his family.

“Never did it cross my mind that the services I was providing were to be used in crimes at the highest level,” he said, reading from a written statement. “My life has been turned upside down.”

Pinedo told the judge his family suffered unrelenting harassment since his arrest from people calling him a traitor. Pinedo said he lives in fear that the Kremlin could retaliate for his cooperation in the Mueller inquiry by using nerve agent poison that has felled victims in the United Kingdom.

“Every knock on the door comes with anxiety,” he told Friedrich.

Pinedo’s attorney, Jeremy Lessem, asked the court to impose a sentence of probation, citing his client’s extensive cooperation. Indeed, prosecutors credited Pinedo’s assistance in bringing an indictment in February against 13 Russian nationals and three businesses – including an internet firm tied to the Kremlin – as part of a scheme to sow distrust in the U.S. political system.

Prosecutor Rush Atkinson said Pinedo provided information that could implicate others in unrelated crimes.

The collective weight of his client’s assistance, Lessem said, should have pushed prosecutors to recommend a punishment that would have allowed Pinedo to avoid prison time.

“This is a difficult time for Mr. Pinedo,” Lessem said after the hearing. “This was not the outcome we were looking for. We were hoping that the government could have done more.

“(Pinedo) never wanted to be part of any of this,” the attorney said.

In court papers, Lessem argued that at the start of the scheme, Pinedo sold only accounts “he personally opened in his own name.”

“Eventually, the demand for account information outpaced his ability to open bank accounts under his own name,” Lessem said, making it necessary to “find account numbers from other sources.”

Prosecutors said Pinedo sold about 200 such account numbers during a three-year period.

“When Mr. Pinedo undertook his illegal and misguided business venture ... he didn’t picture his customers using his services to commit crimes,” Lessem said in court documents. “Mr. Pinedo obviously should have invested more thought into the possible nefarious intentions of those that sought his services. However, never in his wildest dreams could he have foreseen that providing bank account information to set up PayPal accounts could be used to interfere with a presidential election.”

As part of his sentence, Friedrich ordered Pinedo to serve 24 months of supervised release after completing the six months of home confinement.

Instead of immediately ordering Pinedo into custody, Friedrich allowed him to return to California, where he is to surrender to the federal Bureau of Prisons at an undetermined date.