Report: ComputerLand Founder Millard Resurfaces After 20 Years Amid Tax Investigation

according to The Wall Street Journal

Millard, 79, was recently located on Grand Cayman Island by authorities of the U.S. Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), who had been pursuing the former IT executive for an unpaid tax bill of more than $100 million, according to the Journal.

Millard was last seen more than 20 years ago on the remote island of Saipan in the Northern Mariana Islands. According to the Journal, he lived in Saipan for a number of years where CNMI authorities claim he racked up millions of dollars in back taxes. The Commonwealth obtained a judgment in 1994 against Millard and his wife for $36 million in back taxes in U.S. District Court in the Northern Marianas. That bill has grown to more than $100 million, thanks interest and additional penalties.

Millard and his family left Saipan sometime in 1990, and since that time Millard's whereabouts had remained unknown.

However, CNMI authorities hired a New York-based law firm, Kobre & Kim, last year to locate Millard. The firm's team of investigators tracked the former ComputerLand owner to Grand Cayman Island earlier this year, and now the firm and CNMI authorities are searching through a network of more than 50 bank accounts, trusts and apparent shell companies where Millard allegedly hid his wealth, according the Journal's report.

Millard was once among the most successful and powerful men in the technology industry. He founded IMS Associates in 1973, a computer maker widely known for the IMSIA 8080 microcomputer. After building up its microcomputer business, IMS launched a new venture called ComputerLand, a chain of retail computer stores, in 1976.

ComputerLand stores were revolutionary at the time, offering customers a one-stop location for both computers and support services. ComputerLand franchises quickly spread behind the popularity of products like the IBM PC and the Apple II, and by 1985 the retail chain amassed approximately 800 stores across the globe and annual revenue of more than $1 billion. Millard retired that year as one of the wealthiest men in America and one of the pioneers of the computer channel.

But ComputerLand's sales began to decline and financial troubles forced Millard to sell the company to E.M. Warburg, Pincus & Co. in 1987 for just $200. Millard then moved to Saipan. Technology executive William Tauscher took over ComputerLand, and the company was eventually broken up after ceasing its retail operations in 1993.

The corporate sales side of ComputerLand became VanStar while the corporate name and distribution operations were sold to Merisel. Vanstar was eventually acquired by IT services firm Inacom Corp. in 1999, creating a $7 billion reseller.

But Inacom itself fell into financial troubles soon; by the following year, Inacom declared bankruptcy and shut its doors.