A PYMNTS Company

Tenth real estate investor pleads guilty to bid-rigging at CA real estate auctions

By  |  February 26, 2012

Wiley C. Chandler, a real estate investor, has pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Sacramento for his role in rigging bids at public real estate foreclosure auctions in San Joaquin County. This marks the tenth guilty plea in the DOJ’s ongoing investigation into San Joaquin County real estate auctions. Chandler was indicted by a federal grand jury on December 7, 2011.

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

 

Related Content: Screens for Conspiracies and Their Multiple Applications (Rosa Abrantes-Metz, Global Economics Group, NYU Stern School of Business)