An 83-year-old California man was sentenced to 3.5 years in prison after stealing more than $250,000 by pretending to raise money for Bernie Sanders, Beto O'Rourke and others

• A man was sentenced to 3.5 years in prison for stealing more than $250,000 with fake donation sites.
• John Pierre Dupont pretended to raise money for Bernie Sanders, Beto O'Rourke and other politicians.

A California scam artist was sentenced to 3.5 years in prison on Tuesday for defrauding dozens of donors out of more than $250,000 sent to phony political groups for Beto O'Rourke, Bernie Sanders, and other prominent Democrats.

US District Judge Richard M. Berman, who presided over the case from a courtroom in Manhattan, said the scammer, John Pierre Dupont, would receive a lighter sentence than he otherwise would because of his advanced age and illnesses. But the underlying crimes, he said, were serious.

"It expands several years. It used approximately 15 different websites. It defrauded thousands of people for a total of more than $250,000," Berman said. "I have to say, personally, I find that egregious."

The 83-year-old faced up to 20 years in prison, according to prosecutors. $254,000 of his funds were also already seized by the Justice Department, Berman said at the sentencing hearing. Berman said the 42-month sentence would be followed by 2 years of supervised release.

Dupont, who pleaded guilty to wire fraud and identity theft, conducted a nationwide scheme that ran from 2015 to 2019, according to the indictment from federal prosecutors in Manhattan. He expressed "deep remorse" at the sentencing hearing Thursday before rattling off a list of health conditions that have inspired reflection.

"Many have noticed that, when faced with death, your mind focuses on your past, which for me means criminal activity, to which I have pleaded guilty," Dupont said.

Dupont set up fake political action committees and websites that appeared to be raising money for several Senate, gubernatorial and presidential candidates who were running for office, according to the criminal complaint.

Some of those campaigns included Beto O'Rourke's senate run in 2018, Kyrsten Sinema's 2018 senate campaign, and Bernie Sander's 2016 run for president. Another fake organization Dupont collected money for purported to send funds toward resources that would reunite immigrant families separated by the Trump administration.

Dupont — who also uses the name "John Gary Rinaldo" — received more than 1,000 individual donations through these fake sites, according to the complaint. He even went so far as to send thank-you notes to donors in the name of some of the candidates he was pretending to represent, prosecutors said.

Dupont, who was 80 years old at the time of his arrest in 2019, ultimately raked in more than $250,000 which he used to finance his own lifestyle — including paying his rent and other bills and buying a Mercedes Benz, according to court papers. None of the money he raised ever went to any political campaign, prosecutors said.

In March 2019, Dupont was arrested in his home in California by authorities and charged in the Southern District of New York. He plead guilty to those charges in July 2021.

In his sentencing, Berman described Dupont as a wily con artist who had previously been convicted of bank fraud, mail fraud, false impersonation, and other crimes.

Dupont's life resembled something out of a grittier version of "Catch Me if You Can." In one previous incarceration, Berman said, Dupont shared a jail cell with the person who killed his brother and sister-in-law. And after his arrest in 2019, he "jumped bail and led the government on a months-long multi-state chase," eluding law enforcement for seven months before being caught after failing to stop for a stop sign in Oklahoma and lying about his name, Berman said.

"It has been reported that he is a master chess player," Berman said.

A lawyer for Dupont said at the hearing that he had been diagnosed with dementia, gout, type 2 diabetes, a severe kidney disease, arthritis, and other various illnesses. Dupont's life expectancy, the lawyer said, was two more years.

"I want to die with my family," Dupont said. "I don't want to die alone."