A federal jury in Sacramento has found a San Joaquin County resident guilty of wire fraud and aggravated identity theft for his role in teaching tandem skydiving instructor courses without the proper qualifications, authorities said.
Robert Allen Pooley, 49, of Acampo, received the jury verdict following the seven-day trial. He is scheduled to be sentenced in August.
The actions led to the 2016 death of two parachuters in Lodi, authorities said.
U.S. Attorney Phillip A. Talbert of the Eastern District of California said Pooley continued to run tandem skydiving courses after losing his rating as a “tandem examiner” with the U.S. Parachute Association and with Uninsured United Parachute Technologies, a manufacturer of tandem parachute systems. Talbert said Pooley obtained the ratings in 2010.
Pooley then charged money to conduct courses and provide students with certifications that allowed those students to conduct tandem jumps with members of the public throughout the United States and abroad, Talbert said.
After losing his ratings, Pooley continued to run USPA and UPT tandem instructor rating courses and hid news of his suspension, Talbert said. As part of that scheme, Talbert said Pooley used a digital image of another properly rated USPA and UPT tandem examiner to sign off on the training that Pooley had conducted when the other tandem examiner wasn’t in the country.
One of the students who obtained his rating that way was from South Korea. According to Talbert, that student fell to his death at the Lodi Parachute Center on Aug. 6, 2016, along with an 18-year-old boy hooked to him.
Several customers asked Pooley for their money back after that incident but did not receive it, according to Talbert.
Talbert said Pooley could receive a maximum 20-year sentence and a $250,000 fine for each of the wire fraud charges and a mandatory two-year sentence for each of the identity theft charges.