He's tried to do everything possible to help this investigation NOW THAT HE GOT CAUGHT. If he hadn't gotten caught, he would still be doing it.Richard Pinedo, a California computer whiz caught by the special counsel's office selling fake online identities to Russians, was sentenced to six months in prison Wednesday by a federal judge in Washington.
Pinedo is one of the more unusual and relatively unknown defendants caught in special counsel Robert Mueller's court actions so far.
He ran a website that sold dummy bank accounts to eBay, Facebook and other online service users having trouble with the transaction service PayPal.
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Pinedo asked Judge Dabney Friedrich of the US District Court in Washington to spare him from serving time in prison.
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Pinedo helped the investigators identify previously anonymous Russians who allegedly ran the social media propaganda scheme during the election. He then explained to investigators how the scheme of using false identities worked.
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Pinedo also helped identify others involved in online identity fraud besides the Russians. The special counsel's office did not pursue investigations of or prosecute those people because their mandate is narrowly focused on Russian influence in the 2016 presidential election, prosecutor Rush Atkinson said in court. It's possible other US Attorneys could pursue charging those other individuals. Pinedo agreed to help if those cases arose, the attorneys told the judge.
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"I take full responsibility for what I've done," he told the court Wednesday. "I've tried to do everything possible to help in this investigation."
He was also sentenced to six months under house arrest and two years of supervised release.
CNN
...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.
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