HGTV’s “Mr. Flip It” gets four years in jail for $10M fraud

A former reality TV star of “Flip It to Win It” was sentenced to four years in jail and ordered to pay $9.4 million in restitution after he was convicted of real estate fraud in Silicon Valley.

Charles “Todd” Hill, 58, of Los Gatos, was remanded to jail and ordered to pay back 11 victims after being convicted last fall of real estate and financial fraud, the San Jose Mercury News and the Daily Beast reported. He was sentenced to 10 years probation.

Known as “Mr. Flip It” on the HGTV series that aired a decade ago, Hill would use investor money to buy run-down homes, fix them up and sell them for a profit. But if that business model lost money, he would use the money for his own lifestyle and cover the losses with fraudulent accounting practices, prosecutors alleged.

The show’s sole season featured “a high-stakes hour” in which “expert flippers bid against each other for abandoned houses sight unseen” and then worked to bring them to market, according to HGTV’s website. 

“Some see the huge amount of money in Silicon Valley real estate as a business opportunity,” Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen said in a statement. “Others, unfortunately, see it as a criminal opportunity — and we will hold those people strictly accountable.”

Hill was convicted in September after admitting to grand theft with aggravated white-collar enhancements. 

He was indicted in 2019 following an investigation by the DA’s office into multiple fraud schemes, including scams perpetrated before the show, according to prosecutors. Evidence showed that Hill spent the laundered money on a rented apartment in San Francisco, as well as hotels, vacations and luxury cars. 

Hill also created a Ponzi scheme in which he used funds supplied by an investor to buy homes to instead live lavishly, prosecutors said.  He hid the theft by creating false balance sheets and taking out loans using fraudulent information.

Prosecutors said another investor toured a home for which he had provided $250,000 for remodeling — and found it to be a burned down shell with no work done to it.

Victims who spoke at his sentencing said they were still suffering financial and professional damages from the fraud, according to the D.A.’s office.

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Months after “Flip it to Win It” aired, Hill was sued by his former top investor, who accused him of stiffing him out of money meant for renovations, according to the Daily Beast.

Max Keech said in his civil suit that he once funded more than 90 percent of Hill’s flipping endeavors, but that Hill had taken “money for work that was never performed,” cooked the books and pocketed the profits.

Hill denied the allegations, but they caused his former reality TV partner to denounce him and break off their relationship. It wasn’t clear whether Keech’s lawsuit was ongoing. An attorney for Hill said in 2014 he expected the dispute to be settled in private arbitration.

— Dana Bartholomew