By Simone Ebongo Bayehe
Baltimore Watchdog Staff Writer
A 35-year-old Lutherville man pleaded guilty to federal charges of aggravated identity theft and bank fraud this week, authorities said.
Salah Eldean Sood, the former manager of Holland Manor Eldercare, a Towson-based assisted living facility, was entrenched in a scheme of stealing residents’ personal information to open credit card accounts between July 2014 and January 2016, police said.
According to the U.S. District of Maryland State’s Attorney’s Office, Sood had collected six credit cards in the names of three residents and added himself as an authorized user on those same accounts to make purchases.
Sood first caught the eye of Maryland health officials after Baltimore County firefighters were called to the facility in June 2015 to take a resident to the hospital, police said.
Police said firefighters noticed the facility was not up to par, and that the patient’s injuries were more than likely the result of a lack of proper medical care. The patient died two days after intake, police said.
Maryland’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene revoked the operating license for the facility on Sept. 25, 2015. However, on Dec. 3, 2015, the sound of Eldercare’s fire alarm alarmed neighbors into calling the police and firefighters to the facility once more, police said.
WBALTV reported that when police and firefighters arrived on the scene, they found an 80-year-old half-dressed man left in the dark and an 82-year-old comatose woman – who was unable to communicate – tied to a bed with a blanket. Both residents were locked inside the facility with no caretaker in the building, police said.
Sood faces a maximum of 30 years in prison for bank fraud, though according to the Baltimore Sun, he and county prosecutors have agreed to sentencing of between 48 and 52 months in prison. Sood is also required to pay restitution in the full amount of $74,753.24 to his victims.
Sood will be formally sentenced by U.S. District Judge, Marvin J. Garbis on March 30.