Financial Fraud /
Dallas White Collar Criminal Defense Lawyer

Dallas White Collar Criminal Defense Lawyer John Helms  prosecuted mail, wire, and bank fraud cases as a federal prosecutor, and I have defended many of these cases as a criminal defense lawyer. I have also represented numerous plaintiffs and defendants in civil fraud cases throughout my career. Fraud cases almost always require an attention to detail and documents and the ability to explain complicated evidence to juries persuasively and in a way they can understand. I have developed those skills in fraud cases throughout my career.

FAQs on white collar crimes, drug crimes  and other federal crimes 

Q: What is White Collar Crime?

A: White collar crime is a term used to describe non-violent crimes committed by business and government professionals for financial gain. Examples of white-collar crime include fraud, bribery, embezzlement, insider trading, money laundering, cybercrime, antitrust violations, counterfeiting, intellectual property theft, and credit card fraud. Financial institutions, banks and credit unions who are unsuspecting become the target of criminal organizations and are usually used as the vehicle to perpetrate the fraud. 

Q: What is a Federal Crime?

A: Federal crimes are crimes that are defined by federal laws and prosecuted by the United States government. Examples of federal crimes include tax evasion, counterfeiting, mail fraud, wire fraud, bank fraud, manufacturing and delivering a federal controlled substance which includes; opioids, stimulants, depressants, hallucinogens, and anabolic steroids. An individual stopped by law enforcement transporting these substances without a valid medical prescription could be arrested and would be facing a criminal indictment under the drug trafficking statute.

Q: What is Drug trafficking?

A: Drug trafficking is the illegal sale, transport, and distribution of controlled substances. Federal law, Title 21, Section 841 states that it is unlawful for anyone to knowingly or intentionally “manufacture, distribute, or dispense, possess with intent to manufacture, distribute a controlled substance or any drugs that take the form of illicit, schedule drugs, like cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamines as well as schedule IV prescription drugs that can be abused by consumers, like Xanax, Oxycodone, Fentanyl, Vicodin and Adderall to name a few. It is a federal crime and can result in severe penalties, including prison time. Individuals facing a federal drug crime indictment should seek the advice of a federal drug crime lawyer.

Q: What is Money Wire Fraud?

A: Wire fraud is a federal crime that involves the use of electronic telecommunications, such as a telephone, radio, television, or the internet, to commit fraud. It can involve the use of false or misleading statements to obtain money or property from another person. When a scheme has been devised by someone knowingly or intentionally misrepresenting their intentions and posing as a trusted source, usually a friend, relative, company, or family member, requesting an immediate wire transfer of funds. The schemer will usually impress upon the urgency of the need for the funds to be sent immediately, often claiming that an emergency has occurred in order to emotionally manipulate the victims.

Q: What is Insider Trading?

A: Insider trading can be perpetrated by executives, directors, and employees of corporations who have benefited from non-public information to make securities trades. It can also be friends, family and associates who have received tips about non-public information from company employees of any level, helping them in the buying and trading of corporate stock. Insider trading typically falls into two categories. 1. Buying and selling of securities before and prior to the announcement of any favorable news such as a great quarter earnings report, a merger that improves the equity of the company, a new hiring of a CEO or acquisition of a key person. 2. Any buying or selling prior to the announcement of a negative forecast, firing of a key person, drop in quarterly revenue. It is a federal crime to engage in this illegal practice of using non-public information to make financial decisions about the buying and selling of publicly traded stocks, resulting in severe penalties and possible jail time.

Q: What is Money Laundering?

A: Money laundering is the process of disguising the source of illegally obtained money that produced them. By transforming the monetary proceeds generated from an illegal activity and using the proceeds of, for example an illegal drug manufacturing and delivering enterprise where proceeds are used to fund and pay for expenses in a legitimate business. Disguising the revenue so it appears to be generated from an apparently legal source. The primary forms of money laundering flow through into 3 stages; the placement, the layering and or integration. The threshold for raising suspicion from a law enforcement point of view is any amount over $10,00.00 in cash deposited into or withdrawn or from an American financial institution. Any real estate purchase in cash of $300,000.00 or more can be a reason for review. Money laundering is a federal crime and can result in severe penalties, fines and prison time. 

Q: What is Cybercrime.?

A: Cybercrime is any criminal activity against people, against property and against the government that involves either the targeting of a computer or the use of computers, networks, or the internet. Most cybercrime is an illegal activity to make money by individuals or groups of cybercriminals. It can also involve activity aimed at damaging computer networks or computers themselves for reasons of bringing down or disrupting important urban infrastructure systems. These crimes can often result in millions of dollars of economic damages in repairing down systems and bringing them back online. Examples of cybercrime, crimes like phishing, credit card frauds, bank robbery, illegal downloading, industrial espionage, child pornography, kidnapping children via chat rooms, scams, cyber terrorism, creation and/or distribution of viruses, spam. Fraud originated by manipulating computers and computer networks can also include identity theft, hacking, malware, software piracy, smishing, vishing and cyberstalking.

Q: What is Phishing, Smishing and Vishing?

A: Phishing is a cybercrime carried out through e-mail, smishing is carried out by text and vishing is a technique carried out by telephone calling, all of these types of cybercrime in which criminals use deceptive emails or websites even telephone operators calling and misrepresenting or impersonating a legitimate business group to trick victims into providing personal information, such as passwords or credit card numbers. Even social media can be used with the intent of deceiving the victim into providing personal information by persuading the unsuspecting target to click on a link that will install malware on their device. You may have also heard the term spear-phishing or whaling. Spear phishing is targeted phishing.

Q: Who is Attorney John Helms

A: John Helms is a criminal defense attorney based in Dallas, Texas. He specializes in white collar crime, federal crime, and drug trafficking cases. He has represented clients in state and federal courts throughout the United States. John is an experienced Dallas white collar defense lawyer who understands the criminal justice system and what’s required to prepare a state or federal criminal defense for anyone facing serious criminal charges in Dallas and the surrounding counties like Denton, Collin, Tarrant, Hunt, Ellis, Johnson, Kaufman, Hopkins and Rockwall Counties. Having the knowledge of a former assistant United States attorney in the Northern District of Texas, as a federal prosecutor, he has helped defendants of crimes in Texas to be represented by an experienced Dallas criminal defense lawyer. John Helms has the knowledge to select the most effective criminal defense approach. If you’re facing a criminal charge in Texas understanding how a district attorney or federal prosecutor thinks will help in choosing the most coherent criminal defense to proceed with.

1. Example of a Wire Fraud and  White Collar Crime 

Often personal account information is gained through sophisticated phishing schemes to have victims transfer deposits from valid personal accounts to compromised fraudulent personal accounts, with the funds disappearing within moments of the transfer having been executed. These crimes, although primarily void of violence, can be debilitating on individuals, while impacting the social fabric within communities. 

Often unsuspecting victims become part of criminal investigations requiring the skill of a federal criminal defense white collar attorney. These schemes to misappropriate funds and embezzlement are two common federal fraud crimes.

2. Example of a Federal and Drug Crime

A common reason for an arrest in a federal crime is when someone knowingly or intentionally carries a controlled substance across an international border either by air, land or sea a controlled substance, an illegal drug, stimulant or pain killer that is regulated and forbidden for transport by federal or state law. Sophisticated traffickers transporting contraband will conceal in a form that has been designed to represent an actual vehicle characteristic. These substances forbidden or restricted can only be legally transported by being registered with the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) and requires having the proper permits and credentials, otherwise an individual or organization can be arrested and face a federal indictment for this federal crime.

3. Example of an Insider Trading Crime

If you are part of the marketing group and an employee of a fortune 50 publicly traded company, tasked with writing and disseminating news, you have either direct or indirect knowledge of an important press release that is announcing an impressive 4th quarter revenue forecast.

The crime can occur in two ways: 

1) The company employee decides to buy more publicly traded security shares of his company just before the announcement is syndicated, benefiting from any increase in share value after the announcement has been publicly released. 

2) The company employee tips an associate, friend,relative or family member just before the announcement is publicly released to purchase company traded stocks which helps that individual benefit from any favorable company news information affecting a shareholder's increased value.