The quest for digital connectivity in rural Oregon has taken a turn towards legal action as Attorney General Dan Rayfield lays down the law against a few public officials who seemingly looked out for their own pockets over the public interest. In a recent lawsuit, Rayfield is targeting members of the Inland Development Corporation, which was established to spread fiber-optic internet in remote areas for public institutions, for allegedly exploiting their clout to sell, for personal gain, a broadband company meant to serve the common good.
The defendants—officials from the Port of Morrow and Morrow County—are accused of manipulating the sale of Windwave Communications, Inland’s for-profit arm, to themselves at a cost that the lawsuit calls laughably low, especially since a tech giant like Amazon was poised to propel its value further by planting data centers in the region, in the process that Attorney General Dan Rayfield describes as a "betrayal of trust" because instead of guarding the public’s interest in this digital age where connectivity is king, they sought to line their own pockets, as stated in an announcement from the Oregon Department of Justice.
Delving into the legal briefs, it's alleged that to get a favorable sale price of $2.6 million for Windwave in 2018, the insiders handed over stale financial info to the valuation firm, hence not painting the full picture of the company's economic vigor. In what could be considered a masterclass in duplicity, one insider, doubling as the General Manager for the Port of Morrow, was allegedly deeply entangled with Amazon's expansion in the region, which was sure to boost Windwave’s profitability. These revelations follow leaked internal emails highlighting that the company had already reeled in $1.5 million in profits that year, a number expected to increase with Amazon’s increasing presence.
The state’s legal team is not taking this situation lightly, gunning for at least $6.9 million in damages, or potentially unwinding the whole sale, to put things right and maintain that a nonprofit’s assets, which were intended to keep rural institutions like schools and hospitals wired up at an affordable rate, shouldn't morph into a windfall for the well-connected. The lawsuit was set into motion with the filing of a complaint in Morrow County, striving to uphold a cornerstone principle that public resources ought to benefit the many, not the few who sit at the helm.
