A Grand Prairie attorney who spent more than four decades practicing law in Texas is now facing federal charges after prosecutors say he ran a $1.45 million Ponzi scheme built on fake property tax lien investments, forged deeds and a scramble to keep regulators from finding out. David Thomas Gilchrist, licensed to practice law in Texas since November 1983, was arrested Monday on charges including wire fraud, aggravated identity theft and witness tampering.
According to The Dallas Morning News, Gilchrist secured partnerships and promissory notes from roughly 20 people, pulling in approximately $1.45 million between April 2023 and January 2026. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has separately alleged in a civil securities fraud case that Gilchrist raised more than $1.85 million across four fraudulent securities offerings. He returned under $800,000 to investors, using the rest, prosecutors say, to repay earlier investors and cover personal expenses in classic Ponzi fashion.
Gilchrist told the SEC his investment strategy involved purchasing distressed real estate interests, and he pitched investors specifically on Texas county property tax liens — a vehicle attractive to investors because legitimate tax liens hold first-priority status over mortgage holders under state law, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Texas. But the alleged scheme involved no tax liens that were actually purchased, per the Dallas Morning News, and Gilchrist allegedly provided investors forged quitclaim deeds bearing unauthorized notary stamps and signatures.
Excuses Ranged From FEMA Claims to a Shutdown
As investors grew suspicious, Gilchrist reportedly offered a rotating cast of excuses for delays and missing money. He told one investor he was in North Carolina helping homeowners with FEMA claims, according to the complaint, while at other times claiming he was recovering from major surgery in Tennessee or citing a government shutdown and property arson as reasons for setbacks, the Dallas Morning News reports. Investigators say he was recorded checking into a gym in Mansfield at a time when he claimed to be out of state.
He also commingled investor money in his own personal bank account rather than keeping it separate, prosecutors allege — a detail that, combined with the forged documents, forms the core of the wire fraud and aggravated identity theft charges against him.
An Innocent Woman Used as a Scapegoat
What pushes this case beyond a standard fraud matter is what prosecutors say Gilchrist did to cover his tracks. He allegedly described a woman identified in court filings as R.A. as an undocumented immigrant he used as an intermediary to identify distressed properties. In reality, R.A. is an uninvolved green-card holder who prosecutors say had nothing to do with the scheme.
Federal prosecutors allege Gilchrist went further, telling R.A.’s husband that the FBI was looking for him and pressuring the couple to take a vacation to Mexico to avoid investigators, according to the Northern District of Texas U.S. Attorney's Office. That alleged pressure campaign forms the basis of the witness tampering charge against him.
“Gilchrist allegedly forged documents, lied to federal regulators and tried to intimidate witnesses to cover his tracks,” U.S. Attorney Ryan Raybould said in a release. The criminal case was pursued in coordination with the SEC Office of Inspector General, a unit that uses law enforcement authority to prosecute people who obstruct SEC inquiries through fake documents or witness tampering. Kevin Muhlendorf said in a statement that the SEC OIG will pursue people who obstruct SEC enforcement investigations.
Facing Decades in Prison
Gilchrist was arrested Monday and is scheduled to make his initial appearance before a U.S. magistrate judge in Dallas on Wednesday. Under federal law, the wire fraud and witness tampering charges each carry a maximum penalty of up to 20 years in prison. If convicted of aggravated identity theft, Gilchrist would face a mandatory two-year sentence that must run consecutively to any sentence on the underlying fraud charges.
As of publication, Gilchrist has no listed attorney available for comment on the charges. The case adds to a string of major white-collar fraud prosecutions the Northern District of Texas has announced in recent weeks, including a Southlake attorney's nine-year sentence over an $8 million wire fraud scheme, a $40 million bank fraud indictment against a Dallas executive, and a five-year sentence for a former nonprofit CFO who stole $2.1 million from a Dallas children's charity.
The case also echoes the high-profile prosecution of former San Antonio attorney Christopher Pettit, who received a 50-year federal sentence in 2024 for running a multi-million-dollar Ponzi scheme with client trust funds — though the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals set aside his guilty plea this past February over procedural errors during sentencing. Whether Gilchrist's civil SEC case and criminal charges will move forward in tandem, and whether additional victims from his Grand Prairie legal practice come forward, remains to be seen as the case heads to federal court.
