Previous Story
$36.6M default judgments vs Millard, his wife set aside
The federal court has set aside its $36.6-million default judgments entered in 1994 against business tycoon William H. Millard and his wife in connection with the Commonwealth’s income tax lawsuits.
In granting the CNMI government’s motion to set aside the default judgments, U.S. District Court for the NMI Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona on Wednesday noted that the Commonwealth and the Millards entered into a settlement agreement and general release “that settled, released, and discharged all claims.”
Therefore, Manglona said, the judgments have been satisfied, and what remains is to grant the Commonwealth’s motion to vacate the default judgments.
The Office of the Attorney General asked the federal court recently to dismiss the income tax lawsuits filed by the CNMI government in 1993 against the Millards.
Special assistant attorney general James R. Stump also requested the court to vacate the court’s default judgments entered in favor of the CNMI.
Stump made the requests after the CNMI and William and Patricia Millard entered into a settlement agreement. He did not disclose the amount that the Millards agreed to pay the CNMI.
The federal court entered on July 1, 1994, default judgments in favor of the Commonwealth and against the Millards in the lawsuits on an assessed Northern Mariana Territorial Income Tax.
Stump said the parties on May 20, 2014, entered into a settlement agreement that effectively releases and discharges the Commonwealth’s claims against the Millards.
The CNMI government tax claim against the Millards totaled $118 million. The default judgments found the Millards liable to pay the Commonwealth $36.6 million.
The then-Fitial administration tapped the New York-based law firm Kobre & Kim to pursue the Commonwealth’s tax claim. The law firm tracked William Millard on Grand Cayman Island in the western Caribbean in 2010.
Millard sold his interests in ComputerLand Corp. retail chain for over $200 million while he and his family were living on Saipan decades ago.
