Staff report
The FBI investigation of John Wiley Price, Dallas County Commissioner is in the news again. Monday WFAA Channel 8 reported that federal agents intercepted $50,000 from a local contractor to “Our Man Downtown” last December in what the government is describing as an “unlawful activity.”
The land deal being questioned is 10 acres of vacant property, now possessed by Henry Building Incorporated, on Grady Niblo Road in southwest Dallas. The piece of land has been put aside for development into the low-income housing complex Patriot Ridge. The FBI has not publically commented on what the unlawful activity was or what set the seizure in motion. The government’s silence has lead to a whirlwind of speculation.
“What’s not sealed here and where the government is tipping its hat is the fact that it’s calling it proceeds of a specified unlawful activity,” Matthew Yarbrough, a former federal prosecutor, said to News 8. “Meaning that somewhere there’s a crime committed by somebody that they think these monies are the proceeds of that crime.”
Billy Ravkind, Price’s attorney, insists there is nothing criminal about this transaction. W.O. Henry, the contractor buying the land, was also listed as a person of interest in the FBI’s search warrant affidavit last year.
“Henry was advancing him [Price] some money against the property,” Ravkind said.
Putting aside that the FBI is holding money that was intended for him, Ravkind would like to know how did the government agents know money was changing hands.
“They knew about the transaction; they went there and they had Henry write them the check,” Ravkind told News 8. “They knew the amount everything.”
Ravkind is currently drafting a legal response to recover the seized $50,000 payment. He hopes to prove at a hearing, once it is scheduled, the payment was intended to pay for legal counsel provided by him.
