California man indicted by Robert Mueller ran a scheme to defraud e-commerce companies
In addition to issuing an indictment for several alleged Russian trolls today, special counsel Robert Mueller also released plea deal documents outlining a strange plan by Ricky Pinedo, a California man who sold bank accounts in order to bypass e-commerce companies’ identification systems.
The scheme’s ties to the Russia investigation are still unclear, although the Russian indictment did indicate that the Russian agents acquired fake identities and bank accounts. That said, Pinedo’s plea deal does not mention Russia or make any other obvious reference to the investigation.
According to the documents, Pinedo ran a service called “Auction Essistance.” Through the company,…
