Windwave: A timeline of the case

Here is a history of Inland Development Corp., its offshoot Windwave Communications, and Amazon’s operations in Morrow County.

Approximately 2001

: Inland Development Corp. formed to provide connectivity to school districts, hospitals, libraries and county courthouses.

2004

: Windwave begins operating as wholly owned Inland subsidiary serving commercial businesses

2008

: Amazon pays $1.6 million for 80 acres at the Port of Morrow.

2011

: Amazon opens its first data center at the Port of Morrow. The company subsequently builds several enormous data centers nearby, benefiting from tax breaks worth hundreds of millions of dollars that were approved by port and county officials.

2016

: Inland’s board holds strategic planning session to consider raising cash; decides to explore sale of Windwave.

2017

: Inland’s board votes to sell Windwave to five current or former Inland board members, the port director and a county commissioner for $1.88 million.

2018

: Oregon Department of Justice suggests Inland recalculate the Windwave sale price following federal business tax cuts; new value set at $2.6 million. Sale completed, Windwave becomes a private company.

2022

: The Oregonian/OregonLive reports on the relationships between the public officials who approved Amazon’s tax breaks, officials on Inland’s board who approved Windwave’s sale, and the four officials who purchased Windwave.

2024

: Three of Windwave’s buyers agree to pay $2,000 each to settle claims by the Oregon Government Ethics Commission that they sometimes failed to disclose ways in which their roles as public officials may have conflicted with their ownership of Windwave.

2025

: The Oregon Department of Justice

files a civil complaint against Windwave’s five owners

and three Inland board members. The complaint alleges they withheld information about Windwave’s business opportunities with Amazon, thereby purchasing Windwave from Inland for about a quarter of its true value.