Camas accountant Drew Q. Miller, a long-time associate of Vancouver real estate developer Dean Kirkland, has come to an agreement to plead guilty to charges that he willfully failed to pay federal income taxes. The charges against Miller allege that he failed to pay these taxes on purpose.
Miller was accused by federal prosecutors of failing to pay the full amount of the income tax obligation that he had accumulated from 2008 to 2016. In five of those years, he did not file a tax return as required.
According to the court documents, Miller initially entered a not guilty plea, but last week he changed his plea as part of an agreement in which he conceded that his failure to pay taxes resulted in a loss of $147,076 to the government.
On July 21, a motion to change the terms of the plea agreement was submitted to the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington in Seattle.
Kirkland has been busy throughout Clark County for many years constructing hotels and shopping centres. Alleging that they were not treated fairly, outside investors in a number of those projects have filed lawsuits against Kirkland and, in some of the cases, Miller as well.
Since 2006, Miller has been an employee of Kirkland. It is stated that he is the managing member of several limited liability corporations that are in charge of supervising Kirkland’s projects. Miller is the manager of several businesses, including Kirkland Place Hotel Holdings, which is responsible for the construction of a mixed-use retail and hotel project in Cedar Mill.
Hillsboro Development Group West is made up of people like Miller and Kristin Kirkland, who is Kirkland’s wife.
Kirkland was not the subject of any formal charges. In point of fact, he has emerged as one of the most influential and well-known real estate developers operating in the Southwest Washington region.
In recent years, Kirkland has taken on projects that are much larger and more ambitious than in previous years. The Kirkland Tower and Hotel Indigo on the waterfront of Vancouver were both developed by him.
Miller consented to assist the federal government in any investigation into the assets in which Miller has a financial stake as part of the plea agreement that he entered into.
An excerpt from the plea agreement reads as follows: “Defendant agrees to cooperate fully with the United States investigation identifying all property in which defendant had an interest… including those held by a spouse, nominee, or third party.”
In exchange for a guilty plea, the prosecution may sometimes be willing to accept a lesser sentence or even none at all. It would appear that this is not the case with Miller.
The prosecutors did agree to argue in front of the judge that Miller should be given credit for “accepting responsibility,” which typically results in a reduction in the total length of the sentence.
The judge presiding over the case, and not the prosecuting attorneys, will make the ultimate decision regarding the sentence.
In exchange for Miller’s guilty plea, the United States Attorney’s office agreed that it would not charge Miller with any additional tax-related offences in the future.
Beyond that, the lawyers working for the Justice Department did not make any promises. “The United States reserves the right to prosecute defendant for any offence based on any other investigation…including for any fraud committed on any person or entity other than the United States,”
October of 2019 saw the indictment of Miller. He was taken into custody four days after his scheduled arraignment on December 2 of that year because he did not appear in court on December 2 as required.
According to documents submitted to the court, Miller served as the chief financial officer of Kirkland Development and a large number of other Kirkland companies.
Miller made at least 120,000 dollars per year in salary. According to the federal documents, he was also provided with a car allowance and a portion of the profits made by Kirkland’s real estate developments.
Kirkland, who was also questioned by investigators, stated that Miller was a “1099 employee,” which is a tax status that includes independent contractors. Kirkland was questioned by investigators. Because of this, the businesses in Kirkland did not deduct any taxes related to federal income or employment from their employees’ paychecks.
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The government claims that Miller did not file any tax return for a total of five years between 2008 and 2016 and that he also did not pay the full amount of tax that he owed for four of those years.
His tax returns were audited by the IRS, and they set him up with a payment plan to cover the back taxes. According to the indictment, Miller ceased contributing money to that plan in 2013.
According to the allegations, Miller stopped depositing his checks in the bank beginning in 2013. Allegedly, he cashed them or purchased cashier’s checks instead, according to the prosecutors.
