From our offices here in Atlanta, Georgia, we have been following recent developments in a number of federal criminal investigations and prosecutions concerning antitrust violations involving real estate foreclosure auctions. For instance, back in December, the Department of Justice indicted five individuals in federal court for alleged bid rigging and fraud at public real estate foreclosure auctions. In that matter, the indictment included charges against four real estate investors and an auctioneer.
According to the Department of Justice press release issued in connection with the indictment, the defendants and their co-conspirators agreed to suppress and restrain competition by rigging bids to obtain selected properties offered at public, real estate foreclosure auctions. In addition, the Government also alleged that after the conspirators’ designated bidder bought a property at a public auction, they would hold a second, private auction, at which each participating conspirator would bid the amount above the public auction price he or she was willing to pay. The conspirator who bid the highest amount at the end of the private auction won the property. The difference between the price at the public auction and that at the second auction was the group’s illicit profit, and it was divided among the conspirators in payoffs.
The federal indictment against these individuals includes antitrust charges under the Sherman Act, as well as a charge that the defendants conspired to commit mail fraud. Since the return of this indictment, one of the individuals has entered a guilty plea and the others appear to be headed for a trial in federal court sometime later this year. This, however, is not the only investigation or prosecution concerning alleged antitrust violations in connection with real estate foreclosure auctions. From what we have read, however, the investigations and prosecutions in other districts appear to involve similar allegations.
A copy of the indictment in the matter pending in federal court in California can be found here and the Department of Justice press release concerning this indictment can be found here.