Washington (CNN) Richard Pinedo, a California computer whiz caught by the special counsel's office selling fake online identities to Russians, was sentenced to six months in prison Wednesday by a federal judge in Washington. 
 
 Pinedo is one of the more unusual and relatively unknown defendants caught in special counsel Robert Mueller's court actions so far. 
 
 He ran a website that sold dummy bank accounts to eBay, Facebook and other online service users having trouble with the transaction service PayPal. His service allowed people online to breeze through PayPal's financial verification steps and, in the case of the Russians, buy ads on Facebook. Pinedo had bought a few hundred bank accounts for $20 each and sold them for $40, generating him his sole income of about $40,000 over three years, according to prosecutors and his defense lawyer. 
 
 He pleaded guilty to one count of identity fraud during a confidential court hearing in DC federal court on February 12. His case was made public four days later, when the Justice Department announced its indictment of 13 Russians and three companies for running an online election propaganda effort. 
 
 Since his guilty plea was unsealed, Pinedo says he's faced online harassment and safety risks because of the national attention. His family is now planning to sell their house and move out of their rural California neighborhood, Pinedo's attorney said, after video posted on a local news website showed where they lived. 
 
 Pinedo asked Judge Dabney Friedrich of the US District Court in Washington to spare him from serving time in prison. 
 
 "I take full responsibility for what I've done," he told the court Wednesday. "I've tried to do everything possible to help in this investigation." 
 
 He was also sentenced to six months under house arrest and two years of supervised release. 
 
 Helping Mueller's investigation 
 
 Prosecutors told the judge that Pinedo gave them "significant assistance" and that his admissions and testimony "saved the government significant time and resources in the investigation." 
 
 Pinedo helped the investigators identify previously anonymous Russians who allegedly ran the social media propaganda scheme during the election. He then explained to investigators how the scheme of using false identities worked. His sessions with Mueller's team were the first time he had ever left California. 
 
 Pinedo testified before a federal grand jury in DC, which approved the indictment of the Internet Research Agency, Concord Management and Consulting and the oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin, known as "Putin's chef." 
 
 Of the 16 defendants in the social media propaganda case, only Concord Management has appeared in US court. The company says it is not guilty. 
 
 Pinedo also helped identify others involved in online identity fraud besides the Russians. The special counsel's office did not pursue investigations of or prosecute those people because their mandate is narrowly focused on Russian influence in the 2016 presidential election, prosecutor Rush Atkinson said in court. It's possible other US Attorneys could pursue charging those other individuals. Pinedo agreed to help if those cases arose, the attorneys told the judge. 
 
 In addition to his jail term, Pinedo must perform 100 hours of community service. He will pay no fine, but will pay for computer monitoring that tracks if he attempts to commit other online crimes. 
 
 Two other defendants in the Mueller investigation, the Dutch lawyer Alex van der Zwaan and former Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos, received 30-day and 14-day prison sentences, respectively, and paid several thousand dollars in fines. 

 Richard Pinedo, a 28-year-old California man caught up in the Mueller investigation, was sentenced to six months in prison and six months of home detention on Wednesday. 
 
 Of the 32 people Robert Mueller has charged so far, Pinedo is probably the least significant or important, with no connection at all to Donald Trump or anyone in his orbit. He is, basically, a guy who committed large-scale identity fraud for the wrong people. 
 
 Pinedo had a shady online website that sold stolen US bank account numbers to help people circumvent PayPal’s identity verification features. And some of his customers just so happened to be Russians involved in the so-called “troll farm,” a social media propaganda effort to influence the 2016 campaign. The operation was mainly run from a group called the Internet Research Agency and financed by oligarch and Putin crony Yevgeny Prigozhin. 
 
 “Never in his wildest dreams,” Pinedo’s lawyers later wrote, “could he have foreseen that providing bank account information to set up Pay Pal accounts could be used to interfere with a presidential election.” 
 
 While Mueller’s team was digging into the troll farm’s finances last December, they executed a search warrant on Pinedo’s home. Pinedo then very quickly flipped — explaining what his business was and how it worked, and handing over records identifying his customers. 
 
 In contrast to George Papadopoulos, who Mueller’s team said provided them no “substantial” assistance, the special counsel has praised Pinedo’s cooperation. Pinedo’s “prompt acceptance of responsibility saved the government significant time and resources in the investigation,” Mueller’s prosecutors later wrote. About two months after the raid, Pinedo agreed to a plea deal, pleading guilty to one count of identity fraud. 
 
 The next day, Mueller indicted the Internet Research Agency, two other Russian companies, and 13 Russian individuals in connection with the troll farm. He alleged that they tried to interfere with the US election with social media posts, online ads, and rallies organized in the US — often to hurt Hillary Clinton’s candidacy and help Trump’s. 
 
 Many expected this indictment would be the end of the “troll farm” story, since everyone involved was Russian and surely wouldn’t come to the US to face charges. But one company charged, Concord Catering, did decide to contest the indictment in US court. However, it seems that Mueller has largely handed off the matter to other prosecutors in the Justice Department. 
 
 Pinedo’s sentence is the third handed down in Mueller’s probe so far — and the longest. The two previous sentences, for Papadopoulos (14 days) and Dutch lawyer Alex van der Zwaan (30 days), were both for making false statements to investigators. Pinedo, however, pleaded guilty to a different crime, identity fraud. And now it seems his bit part in the Russia probe is over. 

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 By Charlie Gile 
 
 WASHINGTON — Richard Pinedo, a cooperating witness in special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia probe, was sentenced Wednesday to six months in prison and six months of home confinement for engaging in a scheme to sell fake online identities that were used by the 13 Russians indicted by Mueller for 2016 election interference. 
 
 At the sentencing Pinedo, 28, said he has been threatened since pleading guilty and fears for his life. 
 
 Pinedo pleaded guilty to a count of identity fraud in February for helping online users circumvent PayPal identity verification to sell bank account and other stolen identify information. 
 
 Pinedo is the third person to be sentenced in the Mueller probe. Alex van der Zwaan and George Papadopoulos were sentenced this year. 
 
 Prosecutor Lawrence Atkinson said Wednesday in court that Pinedo has provided substantial assistance to investigators and saved them time and resources. 
 
 Richard Pinedo via LinkedIn 
 
 "He identified how the scheme worked and upstream sellers," Atkinson told Judge Dabney Friedrich. "We have every reason to believe the information he provided is truthful." 
 
 The government said Pinedo earned $40,000 to $90,000 in the scheme. 
 
 "His life has been turned upside down by this," defense attorney Jeremy Lessem said. "He's been told he needs to watch his back because he's cooperating with the FBI against the Russian government." 
 
 For his part, Pinedo expressed remorse for his actions. 
 
 "I take full responsibility for what I've done," he said. "Never did it cross my mind that the services that I offered would be used to commit the highest crimes." 
 
 Pinedo said that he's been threatened since pleading guilty. "I've been told that if I ever leave the country, the Russians will poison me," he said. 
 
 Pinedo will voluntarily surrender at a prison in the Central District of California at a later time. He will serve 24 months of supervised release after he finishes his sentence.
– A third person has been sentence in connection with Robert Mueller's Russia investigation. Richard Pinedo, 28, will spend six months in prison followed by six months of home confinement, NBC reports. It is the longest sentence so far handed out in connection to special counsel Robert Mueller's probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 election. Pinedo, who pleaded guilty to one count of identity fraud in February, sold fake online identities, per CNN, which calls Pinedo a "computer whiz," who is "one of the more unusual and relatively unknown defendants" to be caught up in Mueller's investigation. In April, Dutch attorney Alex van der Zwaan was sentenced to 30 days in prison and a $20,000 fine for lying to federal agents investigating Paul Manafort. And last month George Papadopoulos, a former campaign advisor to President Trump, was sentenced to 14 days in prison for lying to the FBI. Pinedo, who has "no connection at all to Donald Trump or anyone in his orbit," per Vox, "committed large-scale identity fraud for the wrong people." He sold stolen US bank account numbers to help users get around PayPal's identity verification measures. His actions enabled 13 Russians, who have been indicted for interfering in the election, to buy ads on Facebook. In all, the scheme reportedly netted $40,000 to $90,000 for Pinedo. "Never did it cross my mind that the services that I offered would be used to commit the highest crimes," he said, per NBC. "I've been told that if I ever leave the country, the Russians will poison me.