A 58-year-old California man who starred in a renovation competition series for HGTV was sentenced to serve four years behind bars after being convicted of real estate fraud, prosecutors announced Tuesday. Charles “Todd” Hill was also ordered to pay back restitution to the tune of $9.4 million, the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s office said in a news release .
After being indicted in 2019, Hill was convicted of committing “multiple fraud schemes” last September after he admitted to “grand theft against all victims and admitted the aggravated white-collar enhancements,” prosecutors said. “Some see the huge amount of money in Silicon Valley real estate as a business opportunity,” District Attorney Jeff Rosen said. “Others, unfortunately, see it as a criminal opportunity – and we will hold those people strictly accountable.
” More than a decade ago, Hill starred on the sole season of Flip It to Win It , described on HGTV’s website as “a high-stakes hour” in which “expert flippers bid against each other for abandoned houses sight unseen” and work to bring them to market. Hill was “Mr. Flip It” on the show, according to The Mercury News , which described him in a 2014 article as “a hard-charging and charismatic developer.
” That year, just months after Flip It to Win It aired, Hill was sued by his former top investor, who alleged that the Los Gatos native had stiffed him out of money meant for renovations. Max Keech said in his civil.
