Robert Allen Pooley, 49, of Acampo, faces the start of a stark two-year stint in federal prison following sentencing by U.S. District Judge William B. Shubb for wire fraud. The punishment stems from his unauthorized administration of tandem skydiving instructor courses. The conviction came after Pooley was found guilty by a federal jury in May this year, the U.S. Attorney's office declared in a recent release.
Pooley, previously accredited with the U.S. Parachute Association (USPA) and Uninsured United Parachute Technologies (UPT), exploited these qualifications to conduct training courses. Severed from his certification privileges in August 2015, he continued to falsely advertise his status to teach tandem skydiving courses. Pooley went on to not only obfuscate his official suspensions but also deliberately led students to believe in the validity of the fraudulent certifications they received. Students were charged around $1,100 for these courses, deceived into thinking they would legitimately earn their tandem instructor ratings.
As reported by the U.S. Attorney's office, Pooley’s deceit did not spare details; it involved using digital forgeries of another examiner's signature to pass off the training he led as authorized. This ruse pulled in students globally from nations such as the Republic of Korea, Chile, and Mexico. The consequences of Pooley's actions became tragically tangible when one of his students, believing themselves to be properly certified, was involved in a fatal tandem skydiving accident that claimed two lives.
Following the devastating incident, numerous defrauded individuals sought reimbursement, confronted with either a complete loss or the financial burden of retaking the instructor courses elsewhere. Judge Shubb, acknowledging the grievous nature of Pooley's transgressions, applied a sentencing enhancement, justly recognizing the conscious or reckless risk of death or serious bodily injury involved in Pooley’s scheme, as cited from the judicial decision. The investigation was led by the U.S. Department of Transportation Office of Inspector General, culminating in the prosecution by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Katherine T. Lydon and Dhruv M. Sharma.