Three Northern California real estate investors have agreed to plead guilty today for their roles in conspiracies to rig bids and commit mail fraud at public real estate foreclosure auctions in Northern California, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced. To date, as a result of the ongoing investigation, 20 individuals have agreed to plead guilty.
Charges were filed today in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in Oakland, against Barry Heisner of Brentwood, Dominic Leung of Alameda, and Hilton Wong of San Ramon.
According to court documents, for various lengths of time between August 2008 and January 2011, Heisner, Leung, and Wong conspired with others not to bid against one another at public real estate foreclosure auctions. Instead, the investors designated a winning bidder to obtain selected properties at public real estate foreclosure auctions in Contra Costa County.
“The Antitrust Division will continue to pursue vigorously the perpetrators of these fraudulent schemes. Those who eliminated competition from the marketplace and lined their pockets while preying on the misfortune of others will be held accountable for their actions,” said Sharis A. Pozen, Acting Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division. “The division also will aggressively seek to forfeit the proceeds earned by those who took a leading role in facilitating these conspiracies.”
Heisner, Leung, and Wong also were charged with conspiracies to use the mail to carry out a scheme to fraudulently acquire title to selected properties sold at public auctions, to make and receive payoffs, and to divert money to co-conspirators that would have gone to mortgage holders and others by holding second, private auctions open only to members of the conspiracy. The department said that the selected properties were then awarded to the conspirators who submitted the highest bids in the second, private auctions. The private auctions took place at or near the courthouse steps where the public auctions were held. According to court documents, a forfeiture allegation was also included in the charges against Heisner.
Each violation carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $1 million fine for individuals. Each count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud carries a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison and a $1 million fine.
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Every time.
I’ll believe it when they are sentenced and not until !
there was another one of these last summer including some in Contra Costa and one well known one here right in Claycord that never got attention. http://californiawatch.org/dailyreport/investors-plead-guilty-foreclosure-auction-rigging-11237
Real Smart! You mean to say these folks were so lazy and stupid that they couldn’t take their meeting to a local coffe shop at least?
The police only catch criminals because they are stupid, and these idiots are exhibit 1.
I’d like to know when they are ALL sentenced! Tom Legaul was my realtor for the first home I bought!! My mother never liked him…guess her instincts were correct!
Can’t wait to hear how much time they’ll get in the Pokey! Rotten SOB’s.
Sounds like they were smug and complacent. After all, they’d been doing it for three years… They will probably get their hands slapped, perhaps do a little time (weekends?) in a white-collar jail with perks. If I were in charge, I would impound their homes, vehicles and bank accounts. Nasty.
Doesn’t surprise me, this stuff has been going on for decades. I remember when my mother tried to do the real estate thing, after she moved on from Crocker when Well Fargo bought them and she helped merge the accounts departments. She didn’t like how Wells Fargo was run and decided to “eliminate her position”. She was VP of something, it’s been a looong time. Anyway, she was going to to “flip” houses before the term became popular. And was very dejected after coming back from one of these county auctions, saying it was a big racket. A year after that, they bought the franchise and couldn’t have been happier (well the first 15 years of business).
If I still had the capital, I would have tried that, with my handy handiness with tools. But dealing with creeps like these, realtors (once step up from politicians and car salesmen if you ask me) and all the red tape that comes along with real estate would turned me off.
Federal prisoners have to serve 87% of their time.
Who can you trust these days???? Can’t trust family, can’t trust friends, can’t trust aquaitances…… I guess we Trust in God and only God!!
I find it strange that the politcians all the way down to the “no doc loan” buyers and “investers” have been committing fraud as well, and have gotten away scott free. The housing bubble was caused by these skanks and continues to rot our economy from the inside out. Fine the little guys and lets hold the true perps accountable.
@ Paco…… so true… all the unethical realtors, loan people & banks all got away w/ the all the $$$$$, while the so called home owners lost everything (if they ever put anything down) They definitely screwed up the housing market and helped ruin our economy along w/ Mr. Obama.
how does one go about to find out if a particular property was blocked from auction by one of these guys? I think the person attempting to buy my old house at auction (so I can rent and not disturb kids) was blocked by these guys…the old place listed at auction for twice the value and some man came right over during the auction and showed old neighbors some bogus paperwork.
any thoughts?
Paco, I couldn’t agree with you more. The bank executives all the way down to the no doc loan lender caused the economic meltdown. They are the real criminals and they’re getting away with no consequences!
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