Millard tied up in financial web
Tim Bosma’s killer can’t inherit his dad’s estate because he has yet to stand trial for his murder — but that’s where cash for his future legal fees may come from
TORONTO — Dellen Millard can’t inherit his father’s estate because he has yet to stand trial for his murder — but court documents show that is where some of the cash to fund his defence may come from.
Millard had spent at least $1.2 million in legal fees by November 2015, civil court documents obtained by the Toronto Star show.
Millard, who was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of Tim Bosma in June 2016, now faces two more murder trials — one for Laura Babcock, the other for his father Wayne Millard — but claims he hasn’t been able to get the funding to pay for lawyers due to ongoing civil court matters.
As a result, Millard and his co-accused Mark Smich have had their joint first-degree murder trial for the slaying of Babcock delayed until September 2017 — and a criminal court judge has offered to intervene with the civil courts to speed up Millard’s access to funds for his potential lawyers.
One immediate source of cash is his father’s estate of which Millard is the sole beneficiary. Millard can’t actually collect on the inheritance because the outcome of his trial for the death of his father is pending, according to an affidavit from his mother Madeleine Burns.
But the court documents show that through some legal manoeuvring Millard — with the help of his mother who has power of attorney over his assets — was able get $75,000 cash from Wayne Millard’s estate in exchange for a loan of $75,000 owed to Millard by the now-defunct family business.
(The business owes Millard a total of $3,979,538.54 in return for Millard selling off or re-financing his own properties to pay off a bank loan but, the documents note, given that the business is no longer operational that money is unlikely to be repaid.)
The cash released was to be used solely for the legal fees of Millard and Burns.
The Millard family assets are outlined through affidavits from Burns who divorced Millard’s father in 1996.
As of 2008, Dellen Millard entered the family aviation businesses Millard Properties and Millardair Inc.
In June 2011, Millard Properties signed a long-term lease at the Region of Waterloo International Airport and built a large hangar — taking on a substantial bank loan.
Wayne Millard died on Nov. 30, 2012 and the aircraft maintenance and repair business collapsed soon after.
Dellen already owned half the business and was left the other half by his father.
After his arrest for the murder of Tim Bosma in 2013, Millard gave his mother power of attorney over his assets and named her executor and trustee of Wayne Millard’s estate.
In order to facilitate the sales and “minimize any associated stigma” Millard also transferred three of the properties — a house in Etobicoke, a condo in the Distillery District and a condo in Vaughan — to Burns.
The proceeds of the sale of those properties and others was used primarily to repay a bank loan, Burns states in an affidavit, resulting in the business owing Millard more than $4 million.
Following a “protracted and difficult sale process” Millard Properties sold its interest in the Kitchener-area airport lease and hangar for $4.8 million in April 2015 — $3.2 million in cash, the rest as a promissory note, a report by a court-appointed receiver states.
From the cash, $1,214,709.40 went to Millard to repay a portion of shareholder loans.
“Substantially all of these funds” went toward paying Millard’s legal fees and retainers prior to November 2015, the report states.
Millard Properties continues to owe Millard $3,979,538.54 in shareholder loans — but given that the company’s only remaining asset is the promissory note, the loans are unlikely to be repaid prior to the maturity date, Burns states in an affidavit.
Millard also faces a demand by the Canada Revenue Agency for $976,965 in income tax arrears and a $14-million lawsuit filed by the Bosma family.
In November 2015, a court granted Burns’ request to appoint a receiver to oversee Millard’s financial affairs and for a freeze on all proceedings related to them.
In June 2016, Burns asked the court to lift the freeze in order to release $75,000 to pay Millard’s legal costs and her own. “The amount is necessary to protect Dellen’s interests in connection with the criminal charges as well as these proceedings,” she wrote in an affidavit.
On June 7, 2016, Millard’s lawyer Nadir Sachak had requested additional funds to complete the Bosma trial, Burns wrote in an affidavit. The amount requested is not stated as it would be covered by solicitor-client privilege.
Her own lawyers requested $25,000 to cover their legal fees in the civil proceedings, she wrote.
On June 16, 2016, the court allowed Burns’ request to have $75,000 in cash released from Wayne Millard’s estate in exchange for $75,000 of Millard’s shareholder loans.
Millard next appears in court on Friday.