A Santa Paula man has pled guilty to identity theft charges as part of the 13 indictments from the special counsel Robert Muller into Russian interference in the U.S. presidential election.

Richard Pinedo pled guilty for allegedly stealing personal information from an online auction business and sold those identities to people outside of the country, according to U.S District Court documents unsealed Friday.

The plea results in the first criminal conviction related to Mueller’s investigation into the Russian-backed ring of social media users aiming to interfere with the 2016 presidential election.

Pinedo ran a scheme that helped his customers use dummy bank accounts to bypass the security of online companies like PayPal, which can be used to transfer money and pay for online services, according to prosecutors.

The Russians had opened accounts on PayPal using stolen identities of people in the US, prosecutors said. The related indictment of the Russians listed 14 bank accounts they used.

Pinedo’s service, called Auction Essistance, helped users circumvent the online security feature that tests whether a person’s identity is real, by depositing and withdrawing small amounts from a bank account then asking the person to identify the amounts in the deposits.

The separate indictment of 13 Russians described how they illegally obtained bank account numbers to evade PayPal’s security measures.

Pinedo sold bank accounts registered under his own name and registered under stolen identities to many people outside the United States.

The suspect made more than $1,000 in a year from the scheme, and earned tens of thousands of dollars in total, the prosecutors said.

Pinedo agreed to cooperate with the special prosecutors’ office in exchange for his guilty plea on February 12.

In a statement to the press on Friday, Pinedo’s attorney admitted guilt in the fraudulent online banking scheme, but said he did not know he was helping Russians.

“Through an online website, Mr. Pinedo sold bank information which allowed individuals to fraudulently verify and establish accounts with online financial institutions. Doing so was a mistake, and Mr. Pinedo has accepted full responsibility for his actions,” the statement said. “However, Mr. Pinedo had absolutely no knowledge of the identities and motivations of any of the purchasers of the information he provided. To the extent that Mr. Pinedo’s actions assisted any individuals, including foreign nationals, from interfering in the American presidential election was done completely without his knowledge or understanding.”

See the full document, unsealed the U.S. District Court, outlining the plea here.  

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