With Friends Like These: Associates of John Wiley Price Might Be His Downfall

[Editor’s Note: This is the third installment of this series. Find the first and second installments here and here, respectively.]

By Ashley Stanley
Special Contributor

No. 3-14CR-293-M [FILED UNDER SEAL]

During a lazy Sunday afternoon, I decided to pick up the 107-page indictment filed by the feds on July 23, 2014, and provide my thoughts. I didn’t know this case was against anyone other than John Wiley Price. Call me ignorant, but it also includes two consultants and a Dallas County employee. Talk about taking your “friends” down with you.

The indictment points out that Price took an oath in which he swore and affirmed things, “So help me God.” What does that mean? Can that be argued? What if he held his right hand up and had his left hand fingers crossed behind his back? Can he be held to the promise to preserve, protect, and defend anything?

Count One: Conspiracy to Commit Bribery Concerning a Local Government Receiving Federal Benefits.

Kathy Nealy, a local lobbyist registered with the City of Dallas, is accused of paying Price $447,217 in the form of checks, cash, and transfers from Nealy’s bank accounts to Price’s bank accounts. She also provided Price the use of a new Chevy Avalanche every four years and a BMW 645Ci convertible. Not done there. She is alleged with secretly funneling $198,284 to Price through the purchase of real estate where Nealy served as a straw purchaser. A what purchaser? I had my 3-year-old ask Google.

Tiny Toddler: “OK, Google. What is a straw purchaser?”

Google: “A straw purchaser is used when the real purchaser cannot complete the transaction for some reason. It is not necessarily illegal to use a straw purchaser, except where the transaction involves fraud or purchasing goods for someone who is legally barred from making the purchase themselves.”

Well then, let’s look at the “concealment.” Payments were given to Price in the form of rental income from these purchases and the memo line would sometimes read “salary.” I’m no expert, but isn’t that typically paid from an employer to an employee?

I’m currently on page 38 and gathered there is quite a lot of contact between Price and Nealy during a “no-contact” period. And there it is on page 50: “Nealy created false books and records to conceal the quantity and dollar amount of payments she made to Price.”

Many “on or abouts” later, Nealy completed a consultant questionnaire for Business U, a selected vendor for the Inmate Phone System RFQ, Request for Qualifications. In response to whether she or any member of her firm had “any relationship to a government agency or instrumentality, a political party or official thereof, or a candidate for political office,” she listed a national political party, but not Price. Can we just wrap this up with they are crooks and have Johnny tell them what they’ve won?

Count Two through Seven: Deprivation of Honest Services by Mail Fraud and Aiding and Abetting

Oh Lawd, here we go. John Wiley Price and Kathy Nealy engaged in mail fraud?

Count Eight: Conspiracy to Defraud the Internal Revenue Service

Here’s where Dapheny Fain comes in. Fain filed an assumed name certificate for MMS, Male Man Sales, or “MMS Company.” Price co-owned and/or operated MMS with Fain. The indictment alleges Price received $333,925 from MMS, but reported none of this income on his tax returns. Nealy and Fain helped Price conceal income, assets, and expenditures from the IRS by having parcels of real property titled in their names. My question is why? And how are these two women not killing each other in a love triangle?

Financial institutions associated with the defendants include six accounts with City Bank in Forney, six accounts with Lakeside National Bank in Rockwall, five accounts with Dallas Telco, and 14 accounts with Bank of America, among others. Neither Fain nor Nealy issued W-2 or 1099 forms for income paid to Price. Wait. A false 1099 filing in 2004 underreported the amount of money Nealy paid Price.

Page 95, Fain received $17,495.92 from a real estate closing, endorsed the check and gave it to Price. As a single parent, that’s a lot of diapers! This dude has her wrapped up so tight and why? The sex cannot be that good. It just can’t!

OK, I’ve seen enough. Price endorsed a check from Nealy and cashed it on his Dallas Telco account, receiving 25 $100 bills. The check’s memo line read “repayment loan.” Sheesh.

Counts Nine through Eleven: Subscribing to a False and Fraudulent U.S. Individual Income Tax Return

Count Twelve: Attempt to Evade or Defeat Payment of Tax

It appears this one is only about Kathy Nealy.

Count Thirteen: False Statement

Come on, Fain. Price did not benefit from MMS? Seriously? Allow me to refer you back to page 95, “On or about January 31, 2005, Fain opened MMS account ****0007 at Lakeside National Bank, for which Price was the beneficiary and a convenience signer.” I’m assuming FBI agents have what’s known as bullshit radars.

[Signed by Sarah R. Saldaña, United States Attorney, an SMU law school graduate.]