The father-son duo responsible for launching Legacy Park in Mesa were indicted for allegedly defrauding investors out of more than $280 million in dual bond offerings.

The indictment, unsealed earlier this week and filed by the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, alleges Randy Miller and his son, Chad Miller, both of Phoenix, used the development of Legacy Park, a 320-acre project of sports fields formerly known as Bell Bank Park, to garner funding for themselves. 

Investigators and the indictment say the duo lied about the financials behind the endeavor as well as the interest from sports leagues willing to pay to use the facility, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

“As alleged, Randy Miller and Chad Miller swindled investors out of over a quarter of a billion dollars by selling municipal bonds they knew were backed by forgeries and lies,” said acting U.S. Attorney Matthew Podolsky in the release. “Municipal bonds fund critical public projects and investors rely on accurate financial disclosures to make informed decisions.”

The case was filed in the U.S. District Court of Arizona. The Mesa project is now known as Arizona Athletic Grounds.

Randy Miller, 70, and Chad Miller, 41, were charged with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and securities fraud, which carry a sentence of up to 5 years in prison, and one count of securities fraud and one count of wire fraud, which care a maximum sentence of 20 years.

The indictment alleges the Millers presented fraudulent information to investors to get them to buy bonds that ultimately financed the park’s construction. In that process, the indictment says the Millers revealed to investors documents that showed customer interest, though the indictment alleges the Millers signd those themselves or forged them without the customers’ knowledge or permission.

Those documents showed the park would be gaining more income than was actually available, the indictment stated, and those figures were used to help sell the bonds that built the facility. 

The Millers, beginning in November 2019, claimed the facility would be 100% occupied at opening and would have $100 million annually in revenue. They provided a memo with more than 50 organizations that said they were committed to having events at the park, according to the indictment.

In August 2022, the initial bond offering generated about $251 million. A supplemental bond offering generated another $33 million. The bonds were issued through the Arizona Industrial Development Authority.

The Millers then used money from the bond sales to buy personal items such as a home and SUVs, as well as paying themselves inflated salaries, as well as withdrawing hundreds of thousands of dollars from the park, the release said.

In many cases, the indictment states, contracts the Millers used to sell bondholders were not actually signed and had been altered.

The park opened in October 2022 and within months was failing to make enough for bond payments. The company, Legacy Cares Inc., filed for bankruptcy in May 2023, and the project was sold for $26 million, with less than $2.5 million going to bondholders, the release said.