SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A man who trained skydiving instructors at Acamopo's embattled "Skydive Lodi Parachute Center" was found guilty Friday on charges of aggravated identity theft and wire fraud.
The verdict followed a seven-day trial.
Court documents show that 49-year-old Robert Pooley ran a skydiving instructor training scheme out of the San Joaquin County parachute center using lies and forged signatures.
In 2010, the U.S. Parachute Association (USPA) and Uninsured United Parachute Technologies LLC (UPT) gave Pooley "tandem examiner" ratings.
For years, Pooley used the certification to train candidates seeking their USPA tandem instructor ratings or candidates looking to get certifications to use UPT tandem parachute equipment.
The training that Pooley provided allowed students to conduct tandem jumps with members of the public around the United States and abroad.
In 2015, both the USPA and UPT suspended Pooley's tandem examiner ratings. Despite the suspension, prosecutors say Pooley continued to lead USPA and UPT tandem instructor courses.
Pooley hid the fact that he was suspended from students and falsely told them that he was still a tandem examiner.
Court documents say that Pooley helped students fill out their USPA and UPT rating paperwork to further the impression that they could get legitimate ratings through his courses.
Pooley used a picture of another properly rated USPA and UPT tandem examiner's signature to sign off on the trainings. The examiner whose signature Pooley forged was out of the country during the scheme.
Pooley's students paid him around $1,100 each for the unauthorized courses. His students came from numerous locations including the Republic of Korea, Chile and Mexico.
On August 6, 2016, one of the instructors who Pooley illegally trained fell to his death along with a skydiving customer.
The instructor was identified as 25-year-old Young Kwon from the Republic of Korea. His customer who died alongside him was a recent Los Banos high school graduate, 18-year-old Tyler Turner. It was Turner's first skydive.
Following the deaths, victims of Pooley's scheme asked for their money back, but Pooley did not pay them. Many of his victims had to pay for entirely new tandem instructor courses with different examiners.
At the time of Pooley's arrest, the parachute center's owner Bill Dause defended Pooley's reputation and asserted that Pooley did not forge documents.
"I've known Rob for, and honestly this is a guess, probably for an excess of 10 years," said Dause in 2021. "Honestly the FAA has been very diligent about checking everything out. We're not hiding anything under the table. Everything's been wide open. And they've been fairly satisfied with what's going on and realized it's an accident."
In the 2000s, the center gained a reputation for accidents and deaths. Between 2000 and 2019, 19 deaths were reported at the Lodi Parachute Center. In 2010, the FAA fined the center $664,000.
The center was ordered to pay $40 million to Turner's family following the teen's death.
Pooley is scheduled to be sentenced on Aug. 26. He faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison, a $250,00 fine for each count of wire fraud and a mandatory two-year sentence for aggravated identity theft.
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Watch more from ABC10: Lodi Parachute Center has had troubled history with deaths
