By Danny Fenster
ticklethewire.com
Creativity is one thing that never seems to be lacking when it comes to housing fraud, a pervasive problem.
The latest: Five men have been charged in an FBI probe into bid rigging on foreclosed homes at public auction in northern California, a local ABC affiliate reported on Tuesday.
A federal grand jury returned indictments on the men with charges including bid rigging and conspiracy to commit mail fraud on December 7th.
The indictment alleges that between September 2008 and October 2009 the men “entered into and engaged in a combination and conspiracy to suppress and restrain competition by rigging bids to obtain selected properties offered at public auctions in San Joaquin County,” according to the report.
More specifically, the station reported that the “men agreed not to publicly bid against each other then held private auctions amongst themselves and divided the profits, according to Assistant United States Attorney Russell Carlberg.”
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