FBI agents arrested former University adjunct instructor and professional speaker Bill Hillar at his home in Millersville, Md., Tuesday following the completion of a fraud investigation involving his fabricated experiences as an American war hero, doctoral degree holder and father of a kidnapped daughter.
According to the FBI’s affidavit, the 66-year-old instructor had been teaching, leading workshops, giving speeches and conducting training for almost 40 public and private-sector clients across the county “for at least the past 10 years under fraudulent pretenses.”
During his trips to Oregon, Hillar occasionally instructed one-credit drug trafficking, human trafficking and other University summer classes to hundreds of students. The classes were offered through the Substance Abuse and Prevention Program on campus.
University graduate and journalism major Victoria Davila took two of Hillar’s weekend SAPP classes in May 2010, and remembers the speaker’s heartfelt stories leaving a palpable impression on the student audience.
“He got classes of at least 180 students in tears … he got students after class waiting to shake his hand,” Davila said. “It’s completely appalling and disgusting that someone would do that.”
To this day, Davila remembers Hillar saying, “I began to realize that we all wear a mask of sanity” which, in retrospect, she said now seems more like a portent than a piece of scholarly philosophy. The recent alumnus also raised critical questions about how Hillar was hired in the first place.
“We all pay thousands of dollars to make sure we get a quality education from quality teachers,” Davila said, “and if (the University) is not doing that, then what are we paying for? I could have taken something else.”
Federal officials said evidence indicated Hillar earned more than $100,000 for teaching and speaking stints while using his illegitimate identity, including $33,000 from the University. In addition to the $32,500 earned from Middlebury College’s Monterey Institute for International Studies in California for teaching two 15-hour workshops per year since 2005, he is reported to have received $24,140 from the Federal Executive Board of Los Angeles, according to court records.
He conducted training through a small business, Bill Hillar Training, operating out of Millersville, and ran a now-defunct website, billhillartraining.com, crediting himself as a retired U.S. Army Special Forces colonel.
On Nov. 22, 2010, an FBI Internet Archive search revealed that Hillar had claimed to have “served in Asia, the Middle East, and Central and South America, where his diverse training and experiences included tactical counterterrorism, explosive ordinance, emergency medicine and psychological warfare.”
Last fall, student veterans taking Hillar’s class at the Institute challenged his credentials as a retired U.S. Army Special Forces colonel and recipient of a University of Oregon doctorate, saying he did not exhibit the mannerisms of a high-ranking army officer.
According to the affidavit, the Middlebury official responsible for hiring Hillar told the FBI she used his website biography and resume to make a hiring decision.
Middlebury discovered Hillar’s claim of holding a University Ph.D. was false, and was unable to verify his military experience. Middlebury officials issued a public apology explaining that Hillar was not a formal employee, so he did not receive a background check. The Institute has now decided to perform background checks for all classroom instructors, in addition to offering Hillar’s former students the option of taking another single-credit course free of charge.
When asked whether the University would instigate a similar policy for affected students, University spokesperson Phil Weiler said administrators have not yet determined whether to mimic Middlebury’s conciliatory efforts.
“I don’t know that the University has addressed that issue at this time,” Weiler said. “If there are students who have taken (his) classes and are concerned about the credits they have earned, they should contact academic affairs so we can come to a solution that works for everybody.”
During the FBI’s investigation, the Department of Defense revealed that Hillar’s only military experience was an eight-year stint as an enlisted sailor in the Coast Guard. According to the affidavit, Hillar never served in the locations he claimed, nor was given any training in the fields mentioned during his service in the Coast Guard.
Hillar had also claimed a personal relationship with human trafficking, boasting that the 2008 action film “Taken,” starring Liam Neeson, was inspired by events in his life and his daughter’s kidnapping, enslavement and murder. The movie’s directors and writers have never mentioned Hillar in interviews.
After being arrested, he appeared before a federal magistrate Tuesday afternoon in U.S. District Court in Baltimore and was ordered to be detained after he was unable to post a $50,000 bond. If convicted, Hillar faces a maximum prison sentence of 20 years, federal officials said.
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