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.

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