US: California investor pleads guilty to bid rigging

Stephan Florida, a real estate investor in Danville, California, pleaded guilty to one count of bid rigging in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in Oakland on Wednesday.  Florida was charged in an indictment returned by a federal grand jury in the Northern District of California on November 19, 2014.

The charges are the latest filed by the Department of Justice in its ongoing investigation into bid rigging and fraud at public real estate foreclosure auctions in San Francisco, San Mateo, Contra Costa and Alameda counties, California.

According to court documents, between May 2008 and December 2010, Florida conspired with others not to bid against one another and instead to designate a winning bidder to obtain selected properties at public real estate foreclosure auctions in Alameda County.  Florida made and received payoffs for the agreements not to bid, diverting money that would have otherwise gone to mortgage holders and other beneficiaries.

Full Content: US Department of Justice

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