Mueller hasn’t completely ignored Americans, though. Also today, Mueller threw out a single-page indictment against American 28-year-old Richard Pinedo, of Santa Paula, California. The indictment alleges wire fraud under 18 U.S.C. S1343. In response, Pinedo has pleaded guilty to one count of identity fraud probe.
According to the Statement of Offense signed by Pinedo, from 2014 to 2017, Pinedo ran an online service called, “Auction Essistance.” Auction Essistance helped people get around security features of large online digital payment companies. Pinedo would purchase bank account numbers from someone he knew overseas, and then create bank accounts with stolen identities. Pinedo would then sell those account numbers to other people to the tune of tens of thousands of dollars. These are the facts not just that Mueller has alleged, but that Richard Pinedo has verified as “true and correct” under penalty of perjury.
What does this all mean? Here’s one idea:
Pinedo hasn’t specifically been accused of any Russian-election-hacking just yet, but he did run a bank fraud scheme and he did traffic stolen U.S. identities and bank information. Oh, and Pinedo’s plea means far more than the words of either his indictment or his plea: it means that Pinedo is cooperating with the Mueller investigation. We’ll have to stay tuned on where his information goes, but something tells me that a Pinedo-Russia crossover will be coming soon to a theater near us.