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Man charged with bilking companies wanting Web sites

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TBO.com Staff

Published: July 27, 2009

John Paul Heintz

A Tierra Verde man was arrested Sunday, accused of passing himself off as a computer-savvy hot shot while he stole thousands from businesses who wanted his company to design Web sites for them.

John Paul Heintz, 59, of 5160 Sandpiper Lane S., was charged with five counts of grand theft. He was being held at the Pinellas County Jail with bail set at $235,000.

According to court records unsealed today, Heintz passed himself off as a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology whose company had a sophisticated data base in Chicago and round-the-clock customer support.

In reality, Heintz dropped out of Southern Illinois University, he was incapable of writing the simplest of computer programs and the only company he was running was the one he and his wife ran out of their Tierra Verde home, the documents state.

He took varying amounts of money, ranging from $4,500 to $18,575, from five businesses who paid him to design their Web sites.

One was a law firm, one was a company that provides certification for prospective employees at the Florida Department of Transportation, another provided honeymoon packages, the fourth provided on-line courses for nurses and the fifth imports handmade articles from African and sells them here.

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