No one has known the whereabouts of 79-year-old William H. Millard since 1990 when tax authorities last spotted the CEO on the Pacific island Saipan.
But the wealthy founder of tech company ComputerLand has now been traced to the Cayman Islands in the Caribbean, and Uncle Sam wants the money ($100 Million) Mr. Millard owes him.
He was one of the world’s most-wanted tax exiles and allegedly totalled astonishing unpaid tax bills of more than $100 million over 20 years.
William H. Millard, 79, founder of retail chain ComputerLand, was last seen by tax authorities on the remote Pacific island of Saipan in 1990.
But despite vanishing soon after selling his firm, he has now been tracked down to the Grand Cayman Island in the Caribbean, court papers said.
The astonishing news about the man once listed as one of America’s richest men was revealed by the Wall Street Journal on Saturday.
The U.S. Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, which includes Saipan, is now using a law firm and investigators’ help to get the money.
Mr Millard is linked to a vast network of more than 50 shell companies, trusts and bank accounts, reported the Wall Street Journal.
‘This is one of the most sophisticated and complicated cases of offshore asset structuring that we have ever seen,’ Michael Kim, prosecuting, said.
Last Christmas an investigator spotted their target at dinner with one of his daughters in Florida, Mariana government officials said.
Mr Millard has not yet commented, but his former attorney Terry Giles said it was ‘ludicrous and insulting’ to suggest he was hiding.
College dropout Mr Millard was a 1970s technology pioneer in California and he turned ComputerLand into a huge PC retail chain.
It had around 800 stores and his stake in the company was valued at $1billion at one point, reported the Wall Street Journal.
[DM]
$100 Million in unpaid taxes? Sounds like it’s time for William Millard to go missing again!
Sidenote: Why is it so hard for rich people to pay their taxes???
