A father and son were each sentenced to years in prison for misleading firms like Vanguard Group Inc. and AllianceBernstein Holding LP about the prospects of an Arizona sports complex backed by $280 million in municipal bonds.
Manhattan U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan on Tuesday gave Randy Miller six years behind bars and his son, Chad Miller, five years. The pair
The Millers had failed to find financing for Legacy Park, outside of Phoenix, for years before they turned to revenue-backed municipal bonds through the Arizona Industrial Development Authority. Vanguard, AllianceBernstein and Macquarie Group's Delaware Funds were among the firms that invested in Legacy Park bonds based on the Millers' false representations.
The 320-acre complex, which had fields and courts for sports including baseball and soccer, opened in January 2022 but never made enough
A nonprofit set up by the Millers to own the complex
The
The Millers had asked Kaplan to impose sentences of no more than two years in prison. Prosecutors had sought a sentence of seven years for Randy and 80 months for Chad but agreed not to contest a sentence of less than seven years as part of their plea deal.
Randy Miller agreed to forfeit about $7.3 million, while Chad, a former minor-league baseball player, agreed to give up about $4.8 million.
The Millers and a third person, Jeffrey De Laveaga, settled
