Former University of Iowa IT employee to be sentenced this month in identity fraud case

A former University of Iowa employee accused of longterm identity fraud will be sentenced later this month.

Matthew David Keirans, 58, pleaded guilty last April to federal charges of identity fraud and lying to a credit union.

Keirans was working remotely out of Milwaukee in the University of Iowa’s IT department for 10 years under the name William David Woods, the true identity of a California man whose identity Keirans stole in the 1980s. Keirans earned several hundred thousand dollars using the stolen identity, with his final annual salary reported as more than $140,000, according to university records.

Woods was eventually criminally charged and committed to a mental health facility for two years for trying to convince authorities of his real identity.

In his guilty plea, Keirans admitted he monitored the court proceedings and tried to report additional evidence of identity fraud to police and prosecutors.

Keirans was originally set to be sentenced in November but will be sentenced on Jan. 31.

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Identity fraud spans decades and several states

Keirans and Woods only briefly crossed paths while working at a hot dog stand in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in 1988, according to court documents. That’s where authorities believe Keirans stole Woods’ identity. Woods told the LA Times last year that he believed Keirans had swiped his social security card from his wallet when it went missing.

By 1990, Keirans is believed to have used Woods’ identifying information to open a bank account and obtain a Colorado driver’s license. In 1994, Keirans was married under Woods’ name and had a child under that surname as well.

In 2012, Keirans obtained a copy of the Kentucky birth certificate belonging to Woods through Ancestry.com.

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Keirans had access to “critical systems” at the University of Iowa

Keirans was hired by the University of Iowa in 2013 using Woods’ name.

Keirans’ plea agreement said he was the “key administrator of critical systems” whose access to the hospital’s computer infrastructure was “the highest it could be.” A hospital representative told the Cedar Rapids Gazette that Keirans was not a senior leader in the organization.

Keirans also used Woods’ name and identity to open bank accounts and take out auto and personal loans from two credit unions totaling about $250,000 between 2014 and 2022.

University of Iowa Police Det. Ian Mallory unsheathed the fraud, ordering DNA tests of Woods’ father, Woods and Keirans, to disprove Keirans’ claims that his identity was being stolen.

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Keirans allegedly told Mallory that “my life is over” and “everything is gone” and admitted to identity fraud.

Sentencing will take place at 9 a.m. on Jan. 31 in the U.S. Courthouse for the Northern District of Iowa in Cedar Rapids.

The Des Moines Register’s Courts Reporter William Morris contributed reporting.

Ryan Hansen covers local government and crime for the Press-Citizen. He can be reached at rhansen@press-citizen.com or on X, formerly known as Twitter, @ryanhansen01.

This article originally appeared on Iowa City Press-Citizen: Ex-UI employee who pleaded guilty to identity fraud to be sentenced