An Iowa Hospital executive stole the identity of a hot dog cart salesman in 1988 to rack up $200,000 in loans, get married and have a child using the stolen name, while the victim was locked up in a mental hospital for trying to regain his identity. .
Matthew David Keirans, 58, now faces up to 32 years in prison after being found guilty of one count of false statement to an institution insured by the National Credit Union Administration and one count of aggravated identity theft.
Keirans stole the identity of William Woods, 55, in 1988 when the couple worked together at a hot dog stand in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
He started living under his name, took out loans, got married and started a successful career in IT.
Woods discovered the fraud 30 years later and tried to claim his identity, but the authorities did not believe him and he was locked up and sent to a mental hospital for two years.
Only when Woods contacted the university where Keirans worked as an IT executive with a salary of $140,500 did police investigate and DNA test the two men, revealing the truth.
Keirans then admitted to the decades-long fraud, telling investigators that “my life is over” and “everything is over.” He remains in the custody of US Marshals awaiting sentencing.
Matthew David Keirans stole the identity of William Woods, 55, in 1988
He began living under his name, took out loans, got married, and began a successful career in IT at the University of Iowa Hospital.
Keirans was born in January 1966 and was adopted, along with his brother, and raised in San Francisco, California. His adoptive parents died in 1986 and 2000, according to court documents.
When he was 16, he ran away from his adoptive family’s home and stole a car, driving to Oregon, where he was arrested but never appeared in court.
He headed to Albuquerque and began working at a hot dog stand where he met his victim, the real William Woods.
Keirans stole his name and identity and used them “in every aspect of his life” for the next three decades, according to court documents.
In 1990, Keirans obtained a fake Colorado ID with Woods’ name and date of birth and used it to get a job at a fast-food restaurant and a bank account in Colorado. He later bought a car for $600 in 1991, also using Woods’ name, and two $300 checks were bounced.
Keirans drove to Idaho, where the stolen car broke down and he abandoned it, withdrawing all his money from the Colorado account and leaving the state.
From there, his fraud increased.
In 1994, still using the name Woods, Keirans married and had a son, whom he gave the last name Woods.
He then moved to Wisconsin and obtained a copy of Woods’ birth certificate using information about his family that he found on Ancestry.com.
In 2013, he landed a job as a systems architect in the IT department at the University of Iowa Hospital.
He worked there for the next 10 years, earning more than $700,000 in total, and by 2023, his salary was $140,501, according to the hospital.
Over the years, he took out multiple personal and vehicle loans from Iowa credit unions under Woods’ name, worth more than $200,000.
Meanwhile, the real Woods was living homeless in Los Angeles.
In 2019, Woods went to a National Bank branch and said he had discovered that someone was using his bank accounts and racking up debt, and asked to close the accounts.
He gave the bank his ID and Social Security number, which matched the information the bank had, but was unable to answer the security questions Keirans had set up.
The bank called the number they had on file for him, Keirans’ number, and Keiran answered security questions, telling bank employees that no one in California had permission to access his accounts.
The bank employee called the Los Angeles police, who questioned Woods and Keirans.
Keirans stole Woods’ name and identity and used them “in every aspect of his life” for the next three decades, according to court documents.
He met his victim, the real Woods, when they worked together at a hot dog stand (not pictured).
After the real Woods attempted to claim his identity, he was arrested and charged with identity theft and impersonation.
The real Woods was arrested and charged with identity theft and impersonation, but when he continued to insist he was the real Woods, a judge ruled in February 2020 that he was not mentally competent to stand trial.
He was sent to a mental hospital in California where he was medicated and confined.
In March 2021, Woods pleaded no contest to identity theft charges, meaning he accepted the conviction but did not admit guilt and was sentenced to two years in prison.
He was given credit for the two years he had already spent in the county jail and hospital and was released with orders to stop using the name William Woods.
He did not stop and continued trying to recover his identity, contacting the police and financial institutions.
He finally managed to find out where Keirans worked and in January 2023 he contacted the hospital’s security department.
The hospital forwarded her complaint to the University of Iowa Police Department, where Detective Ian Mallory opened an investigation.
Mallory found Woods’ biological father and tested his DNA against Woods and Keirans.
DNA proved that Woods was who he said he was and that Keirans was a fraud.
In July 2023, more than 30 years after Keirans first stole Woods’ identity, Mallory interviewed him.
He asked him what his father’s name was and Keirans accidentally gave him the name of his own adoptive father.
Mallory then confronted Keirans with the DNA evidence and he responded by saying “my life is over” and “everything is gone.”
He then confessed to prolonged identity theft, according to court documents, and was arrested on July 18, 2023.
Keirans pleaded guilty to false use of a birth certificate and the other charge was dropped. He was later indicted in federal court on Dec. 12 with five counts of making false statements to an institution insured by the National Credit Union Administration and two counts of aggravated identity theft.
He pleaded guilty to one count of each charge and the others were dropped.
No sentencing has yet been scheduled, he is currently in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service and faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 2 years in prison and a possible maximum sentence of 32 years in prison, a fine of 1.25 million dollars and five years. supervised release after any incarceration.