Formal Plea Entered In Baltimore Tax Sale Bid Rigging Investigation; Target Agrees To Cooperate With Feds In Continuing Probe

In Baltimore, Maryland, The Baltimore Sun reports on the winner of the race to the Maryland Federal prosecutor's office in connection with an ongoing probe into alleged monkey business at the county tax sale auctions:

• A veteran Baltimore real estate investor could serve up to 18 months in prison for conspiring to rig bids at Maryland tax sale auctions under a plea deal that obligates him to cooperate with a continuing criminal investigation of the auctions. Steven L. Berman, in a plea agreement filed yesterday in U.S. District Court in Baltimore, admitted to a single felony count of bid rigging. Berman, 50, also agreed to pay a $750,000 fine.

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• The bid-rigging case is the first to stem from a broad federal investigation that became public knowledge in August. [...] Though Berman is the sole investor charged in the case, FBI agents in court filings have identified other subjects of the investigation as Baltimore County attorney Harvey M. Nusbaum, 70, and his longtime business partner Jack W. Stollof, 73, of Stevenson. Both men have denied wrongdoing through their attorneys.

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• The tax sales often ensnare the same low-income homeowners as has [the local] ground rent [system]. Both collection systems, some critics argue, can force homeowners into costly court battles to keep from losing their homes, sometimes over a few hundred dollars of delinquent taxes, water and sewer fees or bills for sidewalk and alley repairs.

For more, see Investor admits rigging tax sale bids (Plea deal could bring 18-month sentence for Pa. businessman).

Go here for other posts related to the problems associated with the Baltimore tax sale system.

Thanks to Lance Gay for the tip on the story. baltimore tax sale bidding