US: Auction bidder pleads guilty to role in rigging scheme

Marshall Holland, the owner of a Texas company that purchases computers to resell and recycle, pleaded guilty on Thursday, April 11, in connection with an ongoing investigation into a conspiracy to rig bids submitted to the Government Services Administration (GSA), the Department of Justice announced.

According to the one-count felony charge filed in the US District Court for the District of Minnesota, Holland conspired with others to rig bids at online public auctions of surplus government equipment conducted by the GSA.  Holland was charged with participating in the conspiracy from about February 2017 until as late as May 2018.  Holland was the first individual charged in this investigation and he has agreed to cooperate in the Department’s ongoing investigation.

“The Department and its law enforcement partners will not tolerate collusion that corrupts online markets and deprives taxpayers and the federal government of the benefits of competition,” said Assistant Attorney General Makan Delrahim of the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division.  “We will work tirelessly to prosecute online bidders who cheat taxpayers for their own benefit.”