Two More Atlanta-Area Real Estate Operators Find Themselves In Hot Water In Ongoing Federal Probe Into Foreclosure Sale Bid Rigging Rackets
From the U.S. Department of Justice (Washington, D.C.):
- A federal grand jury in Atlanta charged in separate indictments two real estate investors with bid rigging and bank fraud related to public real estate foreclosure auctions in Georgia, the Justice Department announced [].
Real estate investor Douglas L. Purdy [indictment here] has been charged with one count of bid rigging and five counts of bank fraud for participating in the alleged conspiracy and scheme at Forsyth County, Georgia, foreclosure auctions from 2008 to 2012.
Clifford Wayne Hill [indictment here] was charged with one count of bid rigging and seven counts of bank fraud related to public foreclosure auctions in Gwinnett County, Georgia, from 2007 to 2012. The defendants and their co-conspirators allegedly rigged bids at public foreclosure auctions and defrauded banks that owned the mortgage notes.
Among other methods, the conspirators allegedly held secret “second auctions” of properties they had obtained through rigged bids, dividing the auction proceeds that should have gone to pay off debts against the properties and, in some cases, to homeowners who had defaulted.
***Including the indictments filed today in the Northern District of Georgia, 14 defendants have been charged in connection with the department’s ongoing investigation into bid rigging and fraudulent schemes involving real estate foreclosure auctions in the Atlanta area; 12 have pleaded guilty.
***Anyone with information concerning bid rigging or fraud related to public real estate foreclosure auctions should contact the Washington Criminal II Section of the Antitrust Division at 202-598-4000, call the Antitrust Division’s Citizen Complaint Center at 888-647-3258, or visit http://www.justice.gov/atr/report-violations.
posted by Home Equity Theft Reporter at 4:02 AM
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