A father, Randy Miller, and his son, Chad Miller pled guilty to securities fraud and aggravated identity theft in connection with their scheme to defraud municipal bond investors in the sports complex in Mesa, called Legacy Park.
According to the Department of Justice, Randy Miller, age 70, and Chad Miller age 41, defrauded investors in municipal bonds used to fund the development of the major sports complex. In connection with the initial $250 million bond offering in August 2020 and supplemental bond offering in June 2021, the Millers lied to potential investors about the interest sports organizations and other potential customers had in using or relocating to Legacy Park.
The Millers and their associates forged and altered purported “binding” letters of intent and other documents from those potential customers to make it appear that the customers were committing to holding many events at Legacy Park, with a significant number of spectators, and agreeing to pay large fees – all far beyond what the organizations were considering, if they were considering Legacy Park at all.
In some instances, the Millers signed and directed others to sign customers’ names without the customers’ knowledge or permission. At other times, the Millers copied and directed others to copy the signatures of other customers onto the fabricated letters, again without the customers’ knowledge or permission. As part of their scheme, the Millers forged documents on behalf of numerous persons and organizations, including an organization that promotes sports for disabled athletes.
The Millers presented fraudulent documents to prospective bond investors and incorporated them into their solicitation materials by claiming that Legacy Park would be 100% occupied at opening and would generate nearly $100 million in revenue in its first year of operations, more than enough to cover the bond payments.
After the Legacy Park bonds were sold to investors, the Millers profited personally from the bond proceeds raised. Legacy Park opened in 2022 and failed shortly thereafter, defaulting on its bonds in October 2022 and filing for bankruptcy in May 2023. The project was later sold in bankruptcy for less than $26 million. Of those proceeds, less than $2.5 million went to repay the approximately $284 million owed to Legacy Park bondholders.
The Millers, both of Phoenix, pled guilty to one count of securities offering fraud, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison, and one count of aggravated identity theft, which carries a mandatory consecutive sentence of two years in prison. As part of their guilty pleas, money judgments in the amounts of $7,289,134.89 and $4,798,980.19 were entered against Randy Miller and Chad Miller, respectively.