Antitrust Feds Notch Two More Pleas In Ongoing Probe Into Northern California Foreclosure Auction Bid-Rigging Rackets

From the U.S. Department of Justice (Washington, D.C.):

• Two Northern California real estate investors have agreed to plead guilty for their role in conspiracies to rig bids and commit mail fraud at public real estate foreclosure auctions in Northern California, the Department of Justice announced.
  
  Felony charges were filed [] in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in Oakland against Peter McDonough of Pleasanton, Calif., and Michael Renquist of Livermore, Calif.
  
  Including [these] pleas, 29 individuals have pleaded guilty or agreed to plead guilty as a result of the department’s ongoing antitrust investigation into bid rigging and fraud at public real estate foreclosure auctions in Northern California.
  
  According to court documents, for various lengths of time between November 2008 and January 2011, McDonough and Renquist conspired with others not to bid against one another, but instead designated a winning bidder to obtain selected properties at public real estate foreclosure auctions in Alameda County, Calif .
  
  McDonough and Renquist were also charged with a conspiracy to use the mail to carry out a scheme to fraudulently acquire title to selected Alameda County properties sold at public auctions, to make and receive payoffs and to divert money to co-conspirators that would have gone to mortgage holders and others by holding second, private auctions open only to members of the conspiracy.
  
  The department said that the selected properties were then awarded to the conspirators who submitted the highest bids in the second, private auctions. The private auctions often took place at or near the courthouse steps where the public auctions were held. Renquist was also charged with additional counts for his involvement in similar conduct in Contra Costa County, Calif.
  
  “The conspirators suppressed competition and lined their pockets through fraudulent and collusive conduct at the expense of lenders and distressed homeowners,” said Bill Baer, Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division.

For the Justice Department press release, see Two Northern California Real Estate Investors Agree to Plead Guilty to Bid Rigging at Public Foreclosure Auctions (29 Individuals Have Agreed to Plead Guilty to Date).

See Illegal Bid Rigging Racket? Or Mere Innocent 'Joint Bidding' Arrangement? for the distinction between what bidders can and can't do when engaged in cooperative bidding with others at public auctions.