Update;
Jury: Citizen Selgas & Texas Lawyer Green Guilty of Tax Fraud
Jan. 15, 2020
In a unanimous verdict, a Dallas federal jury found Thomas Selgas and John O. Green guilty for one count of conspiracy to defraud the federal government. Separately, jurors found Selgas guilty of tax evasion for tax years 1998-2002 and 2005
Update; Judge Directs Acquittal of Michelle Selgas; Tax Case Against Husband, and Lawyer Green Continues
Jan. 14, 2020
Both sides rested Tuesday in the tax fraud case against Thomas and Michelle Selgas and their lawyer, John O. Green. Then came a surprise: Judge Karen Gren Scholer directed an acquittal for Mrs. Selgas. Natalie Posgate was there, and the case against the remaining two defendants heads toward the jury . . .
Texas Husband And Wife And A Texas Attorney Indicted For Conspiring To Defraud The United States
WASHINGTON – A federal a grand jury sitting in Fort Worth, Texas returned an indictment yesterday charging a husband and wife and a Texas attorney with conspiring to defraud the United States and separately charging the husband and wife with tax evasion, announced Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Richard E. Zuckerman of the Justice Department’s Tax Division and U.S. Attorney Erin Nealy Cox for the Northern District of Texas.
According to the indictment, Thomas and Michelle Selgas, a married couple, conspired with John O. Green, an attorney licensed to practice in the State of Texas, to defraud the United States by obstructing the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) from assessing and collecting the Selgases’ federal income taxes.
The indictment charges that in furtherance of the conspiracy the Selgases transferred personal funds to Green’s IOLTA and that Green would pay personal expenses of the Selgases from his IOLTA.
An IOLTA is bank account used by a lawyer to hold money in trust for clients. The Selgases allegedly deposited the proceeds from the sale of gold coins and other income into Green’s IOLTAs, rather than accounts in their own name, and then caused their personal expenditures to be paid from Green’s IOLTAs, in order to evade paying their federal income taxes.
The indictment further alleges that all three defendants were involved in the filing of a false partnership tax return related to a partnership co-founded by Thomas Selgas.
If convicted, Thomas and Michelle Selgas face a statutory maximum sentence of five years in prison on the tax evasion charges and five years on the conspiracy. John Green faces a maximum sentence of five years on the conspiracy. The defendants also face a period of supervised release, restitution and monetary penalties. An indictment is an accusation. A defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.
Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Zuckerman and U.S. Attorney Cox and thanked agents of the IRS Criminal Investigation, who conducted the investigation, and Tax Division Trial Attorneys Robert A. Kemins and Mara Strier, who are prosecuting the case.
Additional information about the Tax Division’s enforcement efforts can be found on the division’s website.
John O’Neill Green, Attorney-at-Law
RESUME
1977 Klein High School
1982 – Bachelor of Science Criminal Justice
The University of Houston (Cum Laude)
1986 – Doctor of Jurisprudence
South Texas College of Law
1979 to 1986 – Sergeant, Detective, Patrolman
Harris County Sheriffs Department
Former President
Harris County Sheriffs’ Deputies Association
Former President
Deputy Sheriff’s Association of Texas
Former Staff Attorney
Texas Department of Criminal Justice
State Counsel for Offenders
Member Texas Criminal Defense Lawyers Association
Licensed by:
• The Texas Supreme Court
• The United States District Courts of the Southern & Western Districts of Texas
Married 23 Years with 4 Children
Case Tracker : United States v. Selgas (3:18-cr-00356)
District Court, N.D. Texas, Judge Karen Gren Scholer & Magistrate Judge Rebecca Rutherford
”On June 3, 2019, the Government served the three Defendants with a letter (see attached Letter from Mara Strier of 06/03/2019) to advise that it intends to introduce Rule 404(b) evidence in two categories, both of which involve Green. The two categories are:
(1) “other clients” in Green’s trust account, which the Government claims will allegedly show a tendency to “hide his clients’ income and assets from the IRS”; and
(2) Green’s personal tax filing history, which the Government claims will show “[i]n particular, John Green failed to file his own personal income tax returns since 1998.”
