Millard's Millions

It has been hard to find heroes in finance the past few years. With Wall Street's top execs taking turns dumping on both their underlings and the public, I have even made myself sick several times by siding with the federal government. I attribute this state of affairs more so than anything... to the state of affairs. Trillions of wealth have been erased during the crisis, many people are jobless, even more are broke and destitute. It's tough to find heroes among the wealthy on Wall Street, especially so so few "sweat of their own brow" and "up by-the-bootstraps" guys are left in the game. Movie stars were also much more likeable when they didn't get plastic surgery on a daily basis or come from families of Hollywood legacy.

That is why today, I am gleefully giving a shout out to my man William Millard. A proper villain for improper times. A guy who got it while the gettin' was good and got gone. A guy who did every damn thing he could to protect his money from Washington. A guy who (unfortunately) is a stark reminder, that if you owe vig to the mob... they will never leave you be.

When William H. Millard left the U.S. it was clearly for tax purposes. His life of excess and ballerism in the Pacific Island of Saipan is definitely deserving of a movie, if not a miniseries. But over the last two decades, Millard has also managed to avoid paying $100 million in back taxes to the U.S. government. At a time when debates over taxes for the rich rage on, this guy brings a whole new meaning to clawback.

The story is too good not to read for yourself, but here's the defining stanza:

With help from a New York law firm and a small army of private investigators, the commonwealth now is digging into what its lawyers say is a network of more than 50 shell companies, trusts and bank accounts linked to Mr. Millard in hopes of collecting the $100 million.

Naturally, there is no way so much money got filtered around without going through the banking system and J.P. Morgan's mention in the article shouldn't surprise anyone. That said, I am not about to get into the moral analytics of money laundering. All I can say is to reiterate that we haven't had a good bad guy to root for in quite a while. Though I won't be sad if Millard gets his comeuppance, I will certainly enjoy keeping track (or trying to) of him running...err, flying from the tax man.