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US: Guilty plea heard in bid-rigging trial

 |  July 26, 2016

A Georgia real estate investor pleaded guilty on July 26 for his role in bid-rigging and fraud conspiracies committed at various public real estate foreclosure auctions in Georgia, the US Department of Justice announced.

James R. Patterson Jr. has admitted that he agreed with other real estate investors to rig auctions of foreclosed homes in Gwinnett County from May 2007 until at least November 2011. According to documents filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, Patterson and others agreed to not compete for the purchase of selected foreclosed homes so that they could win the auctions for those homes with artificially low bids. The winning bidders would subsequently pay off the conspirators who had held back from bidding against them.

The result was that the conspirators profited from money that otherwise would have gone to mortgage holders and in some cases, to the people who owned the foreclosed homes.

Full Content: US Department of Justice

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