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US: Court delivers prison sentence for real estate bid-rigging

By  |  November 2, 2017

The US Department of Justice stated that on Wednesday, November 1, the Northern District of California sentenced Ramin Rad Yeganeh to twelve months in prison with three years of supervised release for his participation in in a conspiracy to rig bids at public real estate foreclosure auctions in Northern California. Additionally, Yeganeh was ordered to pay US$149,733 in restitution.

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    Between September 2008 and January 2011, Yeganeh and other bidders at the auctions conspired to not bid against one another for selected properties, instead designating a winning bidder for the property at the auction. The members of the conspiracy then held a second set of private auctions known as “rounds” to award the properties to members of the conspiracy and determine payoffs for other conspirators who had agreed not to bid against each other at the public auctions. The private auctions often took place at or near the courthouse steps where the public auctions were held.

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    The sentence is a result of the division’s ongoing investigation into bid rigging at public real estate foreclosure auctions in California’s San Francisco, San Mateo, Alameda and Contra Costa counties.

    Full Content: Department of Justice

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