By Paul Daquilante • Staff Writer • 

Millegan remains out of custody, plans to appeal

Only current online subscribers may access this article and/or our N-R e-editions.

One-day subscriptions available for just $3.

For all subscription offers, click here.

Already a subscriber, please

Comments

Oregonian

Millegan's attorney claims he isn't a risk to the community. Yet, he has been banned from the investment industry and his attorney admits he is advising his sons on their business dealings. They run a small unregistered hedge fund that appears to be focused on the never ending dream of setting up an equestrian center. That sure sounds like a risk to the public to me.

Oregonian

Here is a bizarre cut and paste from the hedge fund's website:

The project has raised a legal fund for the purpose of pursuing and following through on this litigation, which has protected Pegasus’ position in the 2,800 acres on which Pegasus has secured its planning approvals. Contact us if you wish to be part of the Pegasus legal fund, which allows the possibility of an investment in the Pegasus development.

On a separate issue - Drew and Quinn Millegan’s father, who for the past 10 years has been fighting false tax charges and other filings, has filed two appeals to a recent adverse decision by the courts. He has also won a motion for bail pending appeal. We believe that he will ultimately prevail, but his fight has caused a great deal of grief and stress for both brothers Quinn and Drew, as well as the entire family. It will be a relief for this case to be behind him. JW has no ownership in either Woodworth or Pegasus, nor is his defense connected to the Pegasus legal fund. We appreciate your continued support and prayers.

bonnybedlam

Different rules for the rich. Again. Steals over a million dollars from his dead mother and evades $2.5 mil in taxes over 9 years and gets to go home to his family. Hungry person steals from Walmart and it's off to jail with him.

Oregonian

This case illustrates the problem with how our society goes after criminals in complicated cases. Instead of trying to put Millegan away for fraud and theft, they get him on the much easier to prove tax charges. In the meantime, he is able to pop up repeatedly and help his sons with their hedge fund. The feds went after Bernie Madoff for everything, sent him away forever and made sure he wouldn't continue to have victims.

Millegan's record as a broker seems to be clean until he started his own broker-dealer. That when all the churning of account to generate commissions was proven to have occurred. The fact that regulators let anyone decide how much their own commission should be (without a Merrill Lynch or Morgan Stanley compliance officer watching) is ridiculous.

He didn't steal from his mother. He perpetrated identity theft on her by using an old account to launder money and try to keep it out of the eyes of the IRS.

Quinn

(1 OF 3) Quinn Millegan here - Managing Partner of the Woodworth Contrarian Fund along with my brother Drew Millegan. JW Millegan is our father. I wanted to address some of the misinformation circulating. Most of the misinformation is due to a strange hatred of our family that the publisher of the paper has (Jeb Bladine) - who continues to knowingly print false and misleading statements. Jeb declared JW his personal enemy in public city council chambers a few years back. Basic journalistic ethics would require the writers to ask for a statement from the person being written about. They never contacted JW. But this isn't about Jeb. Let's address a few things here:

1) The Woodworth Fund is managed by Drew and I (Quinn). JW has no ownership or control over said investment firm;

2) The multi-award-winning Woodworth Contrarian Fund is completely and properly registered (it is not "unregistered" as a commenter claims - you can find our Regulation D registration on the SEC's website). We also have independent administration and independent auditors who produce, verify, and audit all of our numbers and statements for our partners. The Woodworth Fund invests primarily in US Public Equities and some private companies, some of them local to McMinnville. We are a locally owned successful small business that has been in this community for over 6 years;

3) Pegasus Equestrian is entirely separate from The Woodworth Fund. JW has no ownership or control of Pegasus either. Pegasus is a project led by Drew and I (Quinn) and has a team of experts on board;

(1 OF 3)

Quinn

(2 OF 3) 4) JW was never banned from any securities industry. He retired with all of his licenses. He has never been charged with investment fraud by any state or federal regulator, nor did the government's final charges in this case even allege investment fraud. No client of his ever filed a complaint with any securities regulator either. In fact, JW's brokerage was independently audited by private auditing firms as well as FINRA. FINRA (Financial Industry Regulatory Authority) audited JW Millegan Inc every 3 years, reviewed trades, and gave the firm a clean bill of health. JW has over 40 years of wisdom and experience in investments, the stock market, real estate, and planning;

5) The AUSA dropped their initial charges of "churning" after an expert industry witness (who works for the SEC when they prosecute investment fraud) determined that churning did not occur. They then superseded those charges with extremely vague wire fraud charges that they knew were flimsy and have since been dropped. No churning ever occurred, nor is it alleged to have occurred by any securities regulator or government agency;

6) I would like to comment further on the frivolousness of the charges against JW, but it is all being appealed currently - and in large part due to the outrageous overstep, abuse of power, and gross incompetence of the Federal Government, the IRS, the AUSA, and the Honorable Judge Immergut. What came out during trial was also the fact that the IRS agent in charge on this case was fired for fraud and forgery. Again, JW's tax charge is being appealed.

What I will say to address some of these comments is that there was no identity theft nor was any money taken from his deceased mother - neither of these things were ever even alleged. The account he used was not only disclosed to the IRS, but had only his money in it and even had his name and social security number attached to the account.

(2 OF 3)

Quinn

(3 OF 3)


JW never filed false tax returns and never had a false set of books - this is an agreed upon fact. That's what makes this case extremely unusual. JW never disagreed that he owed income taxes. In fact, he attempted, in good faith, to pay this debt the entire way through. We all get behind on bills sometimes. The great recession of 2008 is what caused this to happen with a slow but sure decline in his business. The problem was that JW never had enough to pay what the IRS wanted him to pay. He relied upon the advice of his attorneys and CPAs the entire way through, which is also an agreed upon fact. At one point, the IRS asked JW to pay, per month, more than the gross revenue of his entire firm, which would have been entirely impossible. There was no investment fraud or theft alleged. On top of this, all counts of wire fraud were dropped.

Additionally, a large part of the government's accusations rely on accusing JW of living a wealthy lifestyle. What is missed here is that all of the "lifestyle" they bring up occurred in a time period when his taxes were paid. I'm going to repeat that - the lifestyle they refer to was during a period when his taxes were paid. After the great recession, all of that changed. All of the "lifestyle" they bring up was also outside of the statute of limitations, which is another major flaw with how this trial has been allowed to be presented.

All that remains is the tax charge, which is on appeal. The tax case is extremely complicated and based in large part on untrue assumptions by the Federal Government which cascaded into something they could not stop without looking foolish - they would rather ruin a man's life and endanger his family and their livelihoods than know when to stop. What is clear is that the federal government is allowed to lie in front of a jury to get what they want. The amount of misinformation produced by the AUSA and this Newspaper is astounding.

(3 OF 3)

Bleepbloop

Cry me a river. One quick google search and you find this on the Pegasus website: The project managers are proud partners with the Woodworth Contrarian Fund and can be reached at.

Not totally separate. How about take some responsibility. We all were affected by the economy in 2007-08. Not all of us fell behind on our taxes by millions. Woah is me with my rolls Royce and extravagant lifestyle. As we all know, the millionaires are the ones that are targeted in our society (sarcasm).

It’s great that you support your father, but how about he shows contrition. Or maybe try to buy the Mack Theatre again and make it a 3D music venue or whatever the nutty idea was.

Oregonian

Quinn - your six point response is full of false statements and inaccuracies.

I was able to find the following from simple online searches:

1) JW states he helps you and your brother with your business dealings. Any reasonable person would believe that would include your small hedge fund.

2) The company that gave you "awards" requires payment to receive the awards.

3) If you ever get audited by a regulator (which I'm not sure you're subject to due to the small size of assets under management you control) the fact that you comment on Pegasus at length on the hedge fund's website would surely be a major point to be explored.

4) Your father has an extensive history of trouble with regulators. There are over 10 events on his record with only two resulting in the issue being dropped. He had a large case in 2016 that resulted in one client losing over $900k due to churning and unsuitable investments. Your father filed for bankruptcy to avoid paying.

5) Please see above.

6) You appear to have commented too much already. I'm sure the comments you posted will be an issue your father's attorney will have to address at appeal.

The idea that your father didn't have the money to pay taxes due is ridiculous. He made money (by churning or other means) and had the cash in his hands. He decided to spend $800k restoring a vintage car instead of paying the taxes he owed.

Your comments about the government mishandling this case seem unbelievable. In situations like this, the simplest explanation is usually the most accurate.

  • Most viewed
  • Most commented
Web Design and Web Development by Buildable