Recent Bid-Rigging Prosecutions Have Tax Lien Investors' Trade Group Seeking Training From Antitrust Feds To Keep Members Out Of 'Sherman Act' Hot Water

In Washington, D.C., Reuters reports:

• Solo investors, specialty investment firms and others who buy up property tax liens for a profit are studying the finer points of U.S. antitrust law after watching comrades in their niche face charges of bid rigging.
  
  A Department of Justice lawyer familiar with a series of recent cases in New Jersey has signed on to speak at a training session next month for the National Tax Lien Association. The training is part of a plan to inform members about antitrust pitfalls in the auctions where liens are bought and sold. It will be at the association's annual meeting in Miami.

***

• Fear of criminal prosecution rippled through the industry in the past few years as the Department of Justice's Antitrust Division brought cases of alleged bid rigging in the local auctions where the lien sales take place.
  
  Bid-rigging convictions can mean prison time and millions of dollars in fines under the Sherman Act.
  
  "No one would ever violate the Sherman Antitrust Act if they knew the significance of the penalties," said Brad Westover, executive director of the National Tax Lien Association.
  
  The association began regular training sessions at its annual meeting last year, Westover said. At his request, the Antitrust Division has agreed to send a trial attorney from New York this year.

***

• Westover said he tells his members to assume there is a federal agent at every tax-lien auction in the country. "We don't want to venture anywhere near something that could look on the wrong side of the law," he said.

For the story, see After busts, tax-lien industry asks for antitrust training.

See Illegal Bid Rigging Racket? Or Mere Innocent 'Joint Bidding' Arrangement? for the distinction between what bidders can and can't do at public auctions.