A Billings man who admitted he stole his neighbor’s personal information and used it to wipe out retirement savings of about $128,000 to fund his own methamphetamine and gambling addictions will spend nearly five years in federal prison.
Zeth Andrew Hilario, 33, apologized for his actions on Friday afternoon as U.S. District Court Judge Susan Watters sentenced him to 54 months, which was the high end of a guideline range.
Hilario pleaded guilty in January to three mail fraud counts and to one aggravated identity theft count. The judge dismissed 12 other crimes as part of a plea deal.
The sentence included 30 months for the mail fraud and a mandatory consecutive two years for aggravated identity theft.
“I now realize the magnitude of the damage I caused,” Hilario said as he asked for a second chance to become a productive member of society and to pay restitution to the victims.
Hilario also responded to the prosecutor’s characterization of his crime as “cold-blood” and sophisticated.
Rather, Hilario said, he was a down-on-his-luck addict when he saw that the door to F.S.’s house was open and knew his neighbor was away. He went inside and stole a briefcase that contained F.S.’s personal information.
“I grabbed it. I did this without much thinking,” he said.
Stealing the money didn’t take much skill, Hilario said. “It was a fill-in-the-blank type situation,” he said, as he used F.S.’s personal information to apply for a bank account.
He also said there was no security screening and that the investment company where F.S. had an account never called. “It was just basically a crime of opportunity. I get that what I did was a terrible thing. I truly do realize the magnitude of the damage,” he said.
But Watters rejected Hilario’s explanation and said his actions indicated “criminal thinking at a higher level” than typically seen.
The judge noted the particularly devastating harm Hilario caused F.S., an electrician, saying he stole a lifetime of retirement savings from someone who had psychological issues and will never be able to make up the money.
The crime exacerbated F.S.’s anxiety to where he cannot return to the house he’s owned for more than 20 years and now lives with his mother, Watters said.
Hilario spent the money on drugs and gambling and purchases, including 13 pairs of shoes at Footlocker, Watters said.
Total loss was calculated at $162,649, with most of it, about $128,420, suffered by F.S.
Hilario also used information to steal money from a couple, whose losses were covered. Watters ordered a portion of the restitution amount to be paid to Valley Federal Credit Union, which covered some of the loss.
Assistant Federal Defender Gillian Gosch recommended one day in prison on the fraud conviction plus the mandatory two-year consecutive sentence.
Hilario, Gosch said, has a significant substance abuse problem and gambling addiction.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Colin Rubich, however, urged the judge to sentence Hilario to more than the guideline term of 54 months, saying in court records that his conduct “shocks the conscience.” He did not specify a particular length of time.
Hilario, Rubich said, wiped out F.S.’s entire retirement savings earned by “hard work of countless years” so he could “indulge in six months of hedonistic debauchery.”
Hilario “destroyed an innocent man’s identity, reputation and wealth so he could smoke methamphetamine and gamble,” the prosecutor said.
Rubich called the scheme “utterly cold blooded.”
Hilario’s actions have caused F.S. “extreme psychological distress, severe tax problems and an impact on his creditworthiness that F.S. will have to deal with for years to come,” Rubich said. “Even if the defendant pays the restitution he owes F.S., which is extremely doubtful, it will only cure a small fraction of the damage the defendant has caused F.S.,” he said.
Rubich also said he wished he could say that F.S.’s investment company was “doing the right thing. As of right now, they’re not. Mr. F.S. is left holding the bag.”
Soon after Hilario’s scheme was discovered, police officers found Hilario passed out in his vehicle with a meth pipe in his hand. A search of Hilario’s vehicle turned up a leather case containing the neighbor’s driver’s license, passport, Social Security card and birth certificate along with personal information about others.
Prosecutors said the thefts began in September 2014 and continued until January 2015 and beyond when Hilario used stolen identity to open fraudulent financial accounts and take money.
F.S. eventually discovered the thefts when he checked his mail and found a prepaid credit card had been opened in his name.
Using F.S.’s identity, Hilario contacted American Funds, where the victim had an account, by telephone and the internet, convinced the firm he was F.S. and got control of the account.
Hilario instructed American Funds to drain the account of most of the funds as early distributions and mail checks to the victim’s home, where he intercepted them.
Hilario then deposited the money into several accounts and a prepaid debit card he opened in the victim’s name and spent the money. He also used stolen information to convince Ameriprise Financial to drain the account of another victim and to send him the money.
