In the late 1980s, Matthew Keirans met William Woods while working together at a hot dog cart in Albuquerque, N.M., according to the Justice Department. Mr. Keirans, from Hartland, Wis., assumed Mr. Woods’ identity for the next three decades.
In 2013, Mr. Keirans gained employment at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics in Iowa City through a fictitious I-9 form, Social Security number and date of birth. For 10 years, he worked remotely from his residence in Wisconsin in the health system’s IT department.
Mr. Keirans, now 59, “was the key administrator of critical systems” and had the “highest” access to and roles in the hospital’s computer infrastructure, according to the Justice Department.
Mr. Keirans was terminated for “misconduct” July 20, 2023. In 2024, a spokesperson told Becker’s: “The University of Iowa acted promptly as soon as it learned of the matter. We worked collaboratively with federal and state law enforcement on the investigation.”
A University of Iowa Health Care spokesperson declined to share comment on Mr. Keirans’ Jan. 31 sentencing.
Between March 2014 and May 2022, Mr. Keirans obtained nine vehicle and personal loans, totalling more than $250,000, from two Iowa credit unions using Mr. Woods’ name, Social Security number and date of birth. In August 2019, Mr. Woods, who was homeless at the time, told a Los Angeles bank manager that he did not want to pay the debt and wished to close the accounts.
After Mr. Woods was unable to answer security questions, the bank contacted the police, who then called Mr. Keirans. Mr. Keirans faxed the Los Angeles Police Department phony identification documents, leading the LAPD to arrest Mr. Woods. Mr. Keirans pressed charges against Mr. Woods and consistently asked the Los Angeles police and district attorney for updates on the prosecution.
For months, Mr. Woods asserted that he was not Mr. Keirans. A California court judge determined that Mr. Woods was not mentally competent to stand trial and ordered him to “use only their true name, Matthew Keirans.”
Mr. Woods spent 428 days in county jail and 147 days in a mental hospital, where he received psychotropic medication. The state of California billed him more than $118,000 for the mental hospital stay between Oct. 20, 2021, and March 15, 2021.
In 2023, Mr. Woods contacted the Iowa City hospital’s security department after learning of Mr. Keirans’ employment. A detective “unraveled” the identity theft scheme over the course of ensuing months, according to the Justice Department.
In addition to the 12-year prison term, U.S. District Judge C.J. Williams served Mr. Keirans a $16,191 fine and a five-year term of supervised release after the prison term. If the state of California decides to pursue Mr. Woods’ institutionalization and/or hospitalization costs, Mr. Keirans will be responsible for said costs, according to court documents.
When interviewed by police in July 2023, Mr. Keirans said Mr. Woods was “crazy” and “needed help and should be locked up.” He then confessed to the scheme when presented with DNA evidence that Mr. Keirans was not the son of an elderly man in Kentucky, as he had claimed, but that Mr. Woods was the man’s son.
