By Rich Bockmann
A 50-year old South Ozone Park man may find 15 years a bitter pill to swallow after he allegedly passed himself off as a Harvard grad with intentions of opening a medical facility in order to steal the identities of six doctors and cash in on their lines of credit, according to the Queens district attorney.
Tom Hill faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted on the larceny, forgery, identity-theft and scheme-to-defraud charges described by District Attorney Richard Brown Friday.
“This is a disturbing case in which it is charged that doctors who thought they were applying for jobs at a new medical facility were, in fact, targeted for identity theft, sadly underscoring that even the most-sophisticated and well-educated individuals are vulnerable to scams such as this,” Brown said. “Identity theft is a serious crime which can take years to untangle.”
According to the criminal complaint filed against him by the DA, Hill allegedly went around touting his imaginary Ivy League credentials and convinced his landlord and another individual to invest a total of $65,000 in his phantom medical facility.
Once his plan got rolling, Hill allegedly interviewed six medical doctors for positions in the sham practice, but instead of their legitimate qualifications, he was more interested in their personal identity information, Brown said.
Hill, who also had a fugitive warrant out for him from a criminal case in Virginia, allegedly used all eight of his victims’ IDs to open three lines of credit totaling more than $415,000 with a medical equipment financing company, the district attorney said.
Investigators with the NYPD’s Financial Crimes Task Force were able to diagnose Hill’s alleged scam and shut it down.
Hill was ordered held without bail and was due back in court Oct. 16.
The district attorney asked that any doctors or individuals who believe they may have been scammed by Hill to contact his economic crimes bureau at 718-286-6675.
Reach reporter Rich Bockmann by e-mail at rbockmann@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4574.
