A fake skydiving instructor in California has been jailed for lying for nearly a decade about being qualified to teach at a school where 28 people died in an accident, authorities and news reports said.
Robert Pooley, 49, was sentenced to two years in prison on Monday after being found guilty in May of continuing to teach tandem jumps to new instructors at Acampo's Lodi Parachute Center after his certification was suspended in 2015. He was sentenced in 2018. According to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
Mr. Pulley has trained over 100 new instructors by approving training courses using a digital image of a certified instructor's signature. This cost approximately $1,100 per student.
In 2016, students Yong Kwon (25) and Tyler Turner fell to their deaths during a fateful tandem jump, raising questions about the instructor. According to SF Gate.
“Pulley falsely told the students that he was a tandem examiner,” the U.S. Attorney's Office said in a statement. “After these deaths, numerous victims of Pooley's scheme asked for their money back, but Pooley did not repay them.”
Pooley has not been charged in the deaths of Mr. Kwon and Mr. Turner.
Following the deaths of Turner and Kwon, a civil wrongful death lawsuit was filed against William Dawes, the owner of the skydiving facility.
Turner's family was awarded a $40 million judgment, but told SF Gate in 2023 that they had not received a penny.
SFGate's previous investigation found a murky level of regulation at skydiving facilities, where there have been 28 deaths since 1985.
Pooley was found guilty of wire fraud in May after a week-long trial, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
A charge of aggravated identity theft had previously been dismissed.
