A PYMNTS Company

Real estate investor pleads guilty to bid rigging at public real estate foreclosure auctions

By  |  January 30, 2012

Kenneth A. Swanger pleaded guilty to bid rigging and mail fraud at public real estate foreclosure auctions held in San Joaquin County, California. Swanger, a former real estate investor, conspired with other real estate speculators to obtain real estate at below-market prices. The DOJ alleges that illicit profit was shared after the first public auction, at a “second, private auction, at which each participating conspirator would bid the amount above the public auction price he or she was willing to pay. The conspirator who bid the highest amount at the end of the private auction won the property. The difference between the price at the public auction and that at the second auction was the group’s illicit profit.”

Source: DOJ Press Release