In the United States, a man spent two years in prison because he could not prove his identity
Kyiv • UNN
In the United States, Matthew Kierans spent 36 years impersonating William Woods by stealing his identity. The real Woods was imprisoned and committed to a mental hospital trying to prove his identity until a DNA test revealed the truth.
In the United States, a man was imprisoned for 36 years for pretending to be an acquaintance of his named William Woods. The real William Woods was imprisoned and sent to a psychiatric hospital, trying to prove that he was him. This is reported by UNN with reference to the Los Angeles Times.
Details
It is noted that in 2019, a man named William Woods contacted a bank in Los Angeles to report fraudulent use of his credit history. He wanted to find out the numbers of accounts opened in his name and close them.
The bank employee asked him for his documents - his social security number and ID card. All the data matched. But when the bank employee started asking controlling questions, Woods was unable to answer.
The bank manager called the number associated with the accounts. The voice on the other end answered that he was the real William Woods and confirmed all the control questions.
The bank called the police. The police received copies of the documents of someone who called himself Woods by fax. Woods was arrested for fraud and attempting to access other people's accounts.
The prosecutor's office filed charges against him, calling him Matthew Kirans, the name of a real fraudster.
In court, Woods insisted that he was not Kierans, but his words sounded confused. The judge declared him incompetent to stand trial and sent him to a psychiatric hospital. He spent 147 days there and a total of 428 days in jail.
In March 2021, he was sentenced to two years, but was released after serving his sentence.
He was forbidden to use his own name, William Woods. He pleaded guilty just to be released. When the court clerk noted that the man insisted on using his own name, the judge replied: “Because he's crazy.
It turned out that the real culprit was Matthew Kirans, a former colleague of Woods.
The scam began in 1988 in Albuquerque, New Mexico, when Woods was working at a hot dog stand. Kierans stole his wallet, but later returned it.
At the time, Woods did not even suspect that his personal data could be used.
After that, Kierans completely disappeared under his real name. In 1990, he obtained an identity card in the name of William Woods. In 1994, he got married, and his son took the name Woods. He took out loans of more than $200,000, paid taxes, took out insurance, and obtained a driver's license. He lived in Wisconsin and worked as a system administrator at the University of Iowa.
He seemed to be a decent middle-class representative, while the real Woods lived on odd jobs and occasionally found himself on the streets.
In 2012, Kierans strengthened his fraudulent legend so much that he even found Woods' relatives on Ancestry.com and used the information to obtain an official birth certificate.
When Woods went to the Wisconsin police in 2021, they didn't believe him again.
But in 2023, he was lucky enough to come across Detective Ian Mallory, who worked at the University of Iowa Police Department where Kierans worked. Mallory conducted a DNA test, comparing Woods' and his father's data.
The test confirmed it: William Woods was the real owner of the documents. When the detective presented the results to Kierans, he confessed.
Kirans stood trial last year, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 12 years in prison. His wife tried to convince the court that he was a law-abiding citizen, but the evidence was overwhelming.
William Woods is now planning to sue the Los Angeles authorities over his unjust sentence. He has already found housing and a job in Albuquerque.
His story has attracted the interest of journalists and screenwriters in Hollywood, some of whom have already written him letters with proposals to adapt the story. Last week, Woods traveled to Iowa to attend the announcement of Kierans' sentence
Phishing: what it is and how to avoid becoming a victim of fraud24.07.24, 11:15 • 159262 views