Business relationship between Price, Fain, Nealy discussed at trial

Testimony Monday focused on the almost seamless business relationships between John Wiley Price, Daphney Fain and Kathy Nealy.

Witnesses testified that Price paid taxes on land appearing to be owned by Nealy and that the same amount of money paid to Fain for a property she sold was deposited by Fain into a savings account in Price's name.

“From a former prosecutor’s standpoint, and currently a defense standpoint, it certainly was curious in my mind as to why they didn’t -- with a 107 pages of indictment -- why they didn’t include one count of concealment money laundering,” said former prosecutor Charlie Blau.

Blau knows white collar crime, as he wrote the government's current statutes on money laundering. He said prosecutors are building their case in such a way that maybe only one person can offer a plausible explanation: Price.

“It may come down to the fact that he's going to have to take to the stand and explain some of these transactions and explain some of the reasons the actual reasons for doing it,” Blau said. “You don’t make that call until the government actually finishes the case.”              

The government wanted to introduce a notebook found in Price's home during FBI raids in June 2011, but Judge Barbara Lynn said no. It contained many documents -- some related to the case and some not.

FBI Agent Darrell Adams and the government were sternly talked to by the judge when the agent mentioned the name of someone she had told the government not to say during his testimony.

The prohibited name was Danny Faulkner, part of the I-30 condo caper that brought down the savings and loan industry in the late 80's early 90's.

The Price trial is now in its fourth week.