Mercury News: Los Gatos: ‘Mr. Flip It’ headed to the big house after grand theft conviction
LOS GATOS – The ex-star of HGTV’s “Flip It to Win It” show was sentenced Tuesday to four years in jail and ordered to pay $9.4 million for committing real estate and financial fraud against 11 victims, prosecutors said.
The sentence follows 58-year-old Los Gatos resident Charles “Todd” Hill’s conviction last fall on grand theft charges, according to the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office.
The television show centered on Hill, also known as “Mr. Flip It,” and his efforts to purchase dilapidated homes, fix them up and then sell them for a profit. Prosecutors said Hill instead spent millions on over-budget remodels, laundered profits and pocketed millions in fraudulently obtained money.
“Some see the huge amount of money in Silicon Valley real estate as a business opportunity,” District Attorney Jeff Rosen said in a statement. “Others, unfortunately, see it as a criminal opportunity – and we will hold those people strictly accountable.”