Story thread · 2 reports / 2 sources

Russian man submitted over 100 Pinellas voter registrations. None of them were real

tampabay.com · 9h · first reportShare

Dmitry Shushlebin came to the U.S. with a pair of master’s degrees, a desire to better his English and visions of a prosperous life. He will leave America a convicted felon with more than half a decade as a federal prisoner. U.S. District Judge Thomas Barber sentenced Shushlebin, 45, to six years in prison Tuesday for orchestrating a sophisticated fraud scheme that unraveled after investigators identified more than 100 fake voter registration applications in Pinellas County. Court records indicate Shushlebin’s aim wasn’t to interfere in elections. Rather, the fake applications were part of an elaborate financial fraud scheme involving fake businesses, loans and illegal credit card transactions. Federal agents tallied the amount he stole at about $477,000. Much of it went to bank accounts in Russia and was never recovered. Shushlebin, a Russian citizen who’d lived for years in Miami, will likely be deported once he leaves prison. “He’s certainly somebody that should have known better,”