March 28, 2024
Annapolis, US 49 F

UPDATE: Scammer Has Long History Of Fraud

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Yesterday, the Severna Park Patch broke a story about a scammer who promised local schools appearances by Baltimore Ravens players. We followed up and unearthed some of Joseph Gill’s past in Maryland which was littered with judgements for thousands of dollars.

Another news source quoted his son as claiming that he had served time in prison for money laundering and was in debt over $300 million.

Today, thanks to a tip from an Eye On Annapolis reader, we can provide some more background on Joseph Myron Gill ans substantiate some of his past frauds and the amount of money owed to victims.

27 Month Prison Sentence, 109 Victims

Gill was found guilty of fraud in November 2006 and served 27 months in Federal prison. He was released and granted a supervised probation and was ordered to pay restitution to 109 individual victims in the amount of $1,092,311.06. It appears that Gill had a penchant for travel as many victims appear to be travel and hospitality companies. And several of the victims were local, including Free State Press for $1,057.46.

A House On Sharps Point Road With A History

This amount was never repaid, and in September 2010, a lien for the amount was placed against his home at 1423 Sharps Point Road. This is unusual since according to the records, Gill does not own the house.

The home itself is not owned by Gill, but by William and Janice Costello (according to public records). The property in question has been known as the Chesapeake Bay Lighthouse Bed and Breakfast and was the subject of much legal wrangling in the late 1990s when the County alleged that the Costellos were operating an illegal bed and breakfast. The County shut down the operation in 1998 for numerous zoning violations. They re-opened and operated it until the early 2000s when a final court case shut the operation down for good.

According to a neighbor, Gill moved in and for a period of time, actually drove one of the Costello’s vehicles. The neighbor, who wished to not be identified, suspected that Gill may have been  a relative. The neighbor also noted “process servers have been banging on the Costello’s front door, almost every day. And this past Tuesday, two Anne Arundel County Police cars showed up at the Costellos property, looking around.”

According to public records, the Costellos also own a home in the Eastport section of Annapolis which appears to be a rental property.

The Documentation

The notice of the lien against the property and the judgement against Gill in United States Vs Joseph Gill can be found in this PDF file (24 pages) including his 109 victims across the county and Canada. We have also included details of the three active cases pending against him in Maryland.

Schools Lose

With a lengthy list of victims, it appears that the scammed schools will be out of luck. The Federal Government will get their money first and the victims named in the judgement will be second in line. Of course this all is predicated on there actually being any money to repay the victims.  Perhaps it is best to not waste the legal resources of the schools chasing the $19,000 owed. Perhaps the time and money would be better invested in making policies to insure that this does not happen again by instituting a vetting process.

 

 

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