Bosma killer in a tangled financial web
Pending trial for father’s murder has frozen Dellen Millard’s cash
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 have 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 trials — one for the murder of Laura Babcock, the other for the murder of his father, Wayne Millard — but claims that he hasn’t been able to get the funding to pay for lawyers because of ongoing civil court matters.
As a result, Millard and his co-accused, Mark Smich, have had their joint firstdegree 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 collect on the inheritance because the outcome of his trial for the murder 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 nowdefunct family business.
“The amount is necessary to protect Dellen’s interests in connection with the criminal charges, as well as these proceedings.” MADELEINE BURNS DELLEN MILLARD’S MOTHER ASKING THE COURTS TO UNFREEZE $75,000 TO PAY MILLARD’S LEGAL COSTS AND HER OWN
(The business owes Millard a total of $3.98 million in return for Millard selling off or refinancing 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.
In 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 Waterloo Airport and built a 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 Waterloo 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, $1.2 million went to Millard to repay a portion of share- holder 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 $3.98 million 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 maturity, Burns states in an affidavit.
Millard also faces a demand by the Canada Revenue Authority for $976,965 in income tax arrears and a $14-million lawsuit filed by the Bosma family.
Millard next appears in court on Friday.