$1.45M TAX-LIEN FUND ALLEGEDLY NEVER BOUGHT A SINGLE LIEN

🚨 About $1.45 million raised to buy Texas property tax liens. Prosecutors allege not one lien was ever purchased.

The Dallas Express reports that federal prosecutors have charged David Thomas Gilchrist, a 70-year-old Grand Prairie attorney, with wire fraud, aggravated identity theft and witness tampering. He was arrested August 31, with an initial appearance set for September 2.

An affidavit filed with the criminal complaint alleges he entered partnerships and promissory notes with roughly 20 investors who handed over money for property tax liens in Texas counties.

Investigators allege the money was commingled instead, spent on personal expenditures and used to pay earlier investors.

📉 Between April 2023 and January 2026 he allegedly received approximately $1.45 million and returned about $789,000.

The excuses for missed repayments, per the complaint: a government shutdown, an arson investigation, a hurricane-relief deployment. In one instance he allegedly said he was in a Tennessee hospital after a colectomy. Records cited by investigators showed a check-in at a gym in Mansfield, Texas.

When the SEC requested documentation, prosecutors say he produced quitclaim deeds investigators identified as forgeries, bearing stamps and signatures of real Texas notaries who had not authorized their use.

Prosecutors also allege that days before scheduled SEC testimony, he showed up at the home of a woman tied to the case and told her husband to "take a vacation" for a couple of years, potentially in Mexico.

The SEC's Chicago Regional Office has separately filed a civil securities fraud complaint. A criminal complaint contains allegations, not evidence, and the law presumes him innocent.

Would you have wired money into a tax-lien deal on a promissory note?

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