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A Californian man whose testimony contributed to the indictment of 13 Russian nationals and three companies in the investigation led by the special advocate Robert S. Mueller III on an alleged presidential election scrutiny of 2016 The United States was sentenced Wednesday to six months in prison and six months of house arrest under a prosecutors agreement.
Richard Pinedo, 28, of Santa Paula, Calif., Pleaded guilty on February 12 to identity theft in a transaction. On the same day, Mueller's office unveiled an indictment accusing the Internet Research Agency of St. Petersburg. The defendants have been accused of having set up a fraudulent scheme using fake social networking accounts to deceive Americans online and incite them to follow Russian propaganda to support the then-candidate, Donald Trump. .
Pinedo admitted to having created around 200 bank accounts, often using stolen identities, and sold some of them to unidentified offshore users, including suspects related to the investigation conducted in Russia.
US District Judge Dabney L. Friedrich said Pinedo had fully cooperated and immediately made contact with the FBI. Prosecutors have acknowledged that Pinedo contributed heavily to the investigation by linking an anonymous Internet activity to the indicted Russians, including the corporate leader Yevgeniy Viktorovich Prigozhin, nicknamed "Putin's leader" because of his ties to the Russian president , Vladimir Poutine.
[Russian troll farm, 13 suspects indicted in 2016 election interference]
"It's a very, very difficult case," said Friedrich in Pinedo's sentence, noting that he "opened the door to other strangers" in order to exploit loopholes. safe to harm Americans.
For his part, the judge thanked Pinedo for helping prosecutors, youths, lack of criminal record, information and support from the family, adding, "I can say that you truly feel remorse."
The sentence fell to the low end of a recommended sentence of 12 to 18 months, and prosecutors agreed that half of them could be serving house arrest.
Pinedo's lawyer, Jeremy I. Lessem, was satisfied with the judge's consideration, but was disappointed by the fact that Mueller's attorneys had belatedly failed to write a letter to officially credit his client with substantial assistance. and ask him a less severe sentence.
"It is clear that Judge Friedrich took into consideration Mr. Pinedo's significant involvement, even in the absence of the recommendation he deserved from the office of the special counsel," Lessem said. He added that even though the bureau had credited Pinedo with having said the "absolute truth", his response would give "a break" to future collaborators.
Mueller Attorney Rush Atkinson said the government would probably have done so as part of an ordinary fraud investigation, but that the evidence provided by Pinedo regarding other criminal activities did not fall within not the mandate of the special advocate of provoking Russian elections, have been referred to other US prosecutors and have not yet been revealed. pursued.
At the same time, Atkinson said: "The government knew the information provided by Pinedo about Russian nationals", although he explained the operation of the fraudulent scheme and provided a lot of information. computer and other records that "have saved the government a lot of time and resources".
Prosecutors estimated that Pinedo earned between $ 40,000 and $ 95,000 over three years by selling approximately 200 real bank account numbers to anonymous users to bypass PayPal's security protocols. This helped clients, some of whom had been banned from the network, to deal anonymously with US individuals and companies, prosecutors said.
However, the government has estimated that it could confirm the identity of less than 10 of the actual victims of Pinedo.
Lessem said that Pinedo had no idea who his data buyers were or what they had done with the information he had sold.
In a brief statement to the court, Pinedo stated that he "had assumed all responsibility" for his actions and had apologized to his family.
He stated that he lived in constant fear for his safety and that of his family and in fear of the Russian government. He said: "All the blows that come to the door come with the worry of who they could be or whether they want to hurt us."
Pinedo said he was perceived by some as a traitor to his country and that others had threatened to harm him for his cooperation with the FBI and had warned him that he would be poisoned he was traveling abroad.
In a lawsuit, Lessem added, "In the end, Mr. Pinedo loves his country, deeply regrets what he has done and only asks the court to consider that he has already suffered enough."
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