Cali man sentenced to prison for wire fraud in unlicensed tandem skydiving instructor course program

A California man has been sentenced to two years in prison for wire fraud linked to a tandem skydiving instructor course program. The scheme involved the use of fraudulent documents to teach courses intended for tandem instructor qualifications, which resulted in the death of a student along with a client.

A judge convicted Robert Allen Pooley, 49, of wire fraud. Pooley was convicted by a federal jury in May 2024 after a seven-day trial. On September 30, Pooley was sentenced to 24 months in prison, 36 months of supervised release and a $200 special assessment. In his sentencing, Judge William B. Shubb found that Pooley’s offense involved a knowing or reckless risk of death or serious bodily injury and, based on this finding, he applied an enhanced sentence. penalty.

In 2010, Pooley earned tandem examiner qualifications from the US Parachute Association and Uninsured United Parachute Technologies LLC, a manufacturer of tandem parachute systems. Pooley has begun hosting training classes for students seeking to obtain their USPA tandem instructor qualifications and/or certifications to operate UPT tandem parachute systems. The certificates he provided to his students allowed them to perform tandem jumps with members of the public in the United States and abroad. Pooley charged students money for these lessons and conducted them at a skydiving company in Acampo.

In August 2015, the USPA and UPT suspended Pooley’s tandem examiner qualifications, meaning he was no longer authorized to conduct tandem instructor courses on his own. Despite the suspension, Pooley continued to teach USPA and UPT tandem instructor qualification courses without authorization and hid his suspensions from his students. He told his students that he was a tandem examiner, which led them to believe that they could obtain the USPA and UPT tandem qualifications with his courses. He helped students fill out USPA and UPT grading documents to continue the charade, leading students to believe they would earn legitimate grades in tandem from his classes.

In his project, Pooley used a digital image of the signature of a properly rated USPA and UPT tandem examiner to endorse training he had provided when the other tandem examiner was outside the country. In 2016, Pooley accepted several students from around the world, including the Republic of Korea, Chile and Mexico. His students paid $1,100 for the classes and signed paperwork led them to believe they were certified to perform tandem skydives with the public. According to SFGate, he trained more than 100 new students after his certificates were suspended.

On August 6, 2016, one of his students died in a tandem skydiving accident with a client who also died. According to ABC 10, the student was Young Kwon, 25, from the Republic of Korea, and his client was recent high school graduate and novice skydiver, 18-year-old Tyler Turner. Following these tragic deaths, several students asked Pooley for their money, but he did not reimburse them. Many students were forced to pay for new tandem instructor courses in other locations.

According to SFGate, Pooley taught his unauthorized skydiving classes at a San Joaquin County site that has seen 28 deaths since 1985. SFGate reported that during the 2016 incident, Kwon and Turner’s primary and reserve parachutes were tangled, preventing either one from opening. Turner’s mother soon learned that 21 people had died in incidents linked to the center since 1985, and in the years since her son’s death, that number has only increased. According to Recordnet, the center’s owner was ordered to pay more than $40 million to Turner’s family in 2021.

Pooley has not been charged in the deaths of Kwon or Turner, according to SFGate. His case was the result of an investigation by the U.S. DOT, and U.S. Attorneys Katherine T. Lydon and Dhruv M. Sharma prosecuted it.