The former star of HGTV’s “Flip It to Win It” show was arrested Dec. 16 by Los Gatos-Monte Sereno Police on four grand theft arrest warrants. Todd Hill, 51, who was known as “Mr. Flip It,” was taken into custody on Almendra Avenue and booked into jail on $500,000 bond.
He was released from custody and arraigned last month, Santa Clara County Deputy District Attorney Christine Garcia-Sen confirmed.
“There are allegations that he took more than $200,000 from each of four victims,” Garcia-Sen said. “So, there is an aggravated white collar crime enhancement that basically means there is a pattern of crime involving the taking of more than $500,000.”
The incidents allegedly occurred between March 2013 and July 2014.
“He had a business where he was buying homes and hiring contractors to fix them up for profit,” Garcia-Sen said of the charges. “He started losing money and began manipulating the books to make it appear profitable.Then, he created a new company and transferred assets from the other company to attract new investors.”
Until a few years ago, Hill, a Los Gatos native, maintained an office for his real estate company, SVHome, at 221 Los Gatos-Saratoga Road.
This isn’t the first time Hill has made headlines.
In December 2014, the Mercury News reported that a civil lawsuit had been filed against Hill by Woodside developer Max Keech, who claimed Hill defrauded him by siphoning off money meant to rehab old houses. Hill “took money for work that was never performed” by “falsifying financial reports and an online tracking system,” court papers stated.
Hill denied the allegations.
“It’s not true, not a word of it,” he said at the time. “It’s a private matter.”
Early on, San Jose attorney Frank Ubhaus represented Hill in the Meech lawsuit, but he has since withdrawn from that case and says it has not been resolved.
Hill, meantime, is expected to enter a plea to the grand theft charges at 1:30 p.m. Jan. 22 in Department 30 of the Hall of Justice in San Jose.
And Garcia-Sen offered straight-forward advice for would-be real estate investors: “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Whenever a person enters into a business relationship, they need to do a background check,” she cautioned.
