Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield announced he has filed a civil enforcement lawsuit against several public officials and community leaders, accusing them of orchestrating the insider sale of a valuable broadband company for personal financial gain. The broadband firm, Windwave Communications, is a subsidiary of a nonprofit originally established to expand internet access to rural schools, hospitals, courthouses, and libraries in eastern Oregon.
The Oregon Department of Justice is seeking at least $6.9 million in damages, or alternatively, to void the sale of Windwave entirely. The lawsuit also requests an injunction and other remedies to ensure accountability and to protect the principle that nonprofit resources meant for public good are not exploited for private enrichment.
According to the lawsuit, a small group of insiders, including the Port of Morrow’s General Manager, two Port Commissioners, and a Morrow County Commissioner, abused their roles on the board of Inland Development Corporation, a nonprofit created in 2004, to serve public institutions with fiber-optic infrastructure.
“This nonprofit was created to connect eastern Oregon communities, not to quietly enrich a handful of officials behind closed doors,” Attorney General Rayfield said. “When public officials use their positions to game the system for private gain, it’s a betrayal of trust. These were people in power who knew that Windwave was about to explode in value — and instead of protecting the public’s interest, they cashed in.”
The complaint alleges that these officials schemed to acquire Windwave at a “grossly undervalued price” just as the company’s worth was skyrocketing, thanks in part to the arrival of major data centers, including facilities developed by Amazon. One insider, also the Port of Morrow’s General Manager, was directly involved in Amazon’s land deals for new data centers—transactions expected to further boost Windwave’s value.
Despite having access to current financial data showing Windwave’s rapid growth and profitability, the insiders, according to the suit documents, provided an outside valuation firm with outdated, incomplete information from early 2017. That flawed valuation pegged Windwave’s worth at $2.6 million—a figure used to justify the sale in 2018. Internal emails cited in the lawsuit reveal the insiders were fully aware the company had already earned $1.5 million in profits that year, with expectations of further growth tied to Amazon’s expansion.
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