Saturday, March 10, 2012

Investors Guilty of Rigging Foreclosure Auctions in Contra Costa County


Investors Guilty of Rigging Foreclosure Auctions in Contra Costa County

Court document shows that three Northern Californian investors have decided to plead guilty for their involvements in schemes to rig auction offers and mail fraud deception at public real estate foreclosure sales in Contra Costa County.

Based on court records, Heisner, Leung and Wong collaborated with other individuals not to submit bids against each other at public real estate foreclosure auctions. The Investors rather selected a successful bidder to acquire determined real estate at the auctions, which had taken place in Contra Costa County at numerous times from August 2008 to January 2011.

Twenty other individuals that were part of the scheme have decided to plead guilty. The three investors also were charged with utilizing the mail to support out their scheme, which involved acquiring title to the purchased properties, generating and acquiring payoffs and redirecting funds to co-conspirators that were designed for home loan holders.

The Justice Department states that Wong, Leung and Heisner also organised exclusive auctions available only to associates of their conspiracy, and that those homes were granted to the conspirators who sent in the best bids. Those auctions had taken place at or in close vicinity to the courthouse steps in which the public auctions were done.

The department of Justice claimed the key objective of the conspiracies was to control and limit competitors and to cover up payoffs in order to obtain the homes at the public foreclosure auctions at noncompetitive selling prices. Profits from public auctions are applied to pay off the loan and other debt connected to the property with the leftover earnings paid to the homeowner if any.

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