Real estate investor Christopher Graeve pleaded guilty today
in West Palm Beach, in connection with an ongoing investigation into bid
rigging at online public foreclosure auctions in Florida, the Department of
Justice announced. Graeve is the second
real estate investor to plead guilty in this investigation.
Felony charges of bid rigging were filed against Graeve on
November 2, 2017, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of
Florida. According to court documents,
from around January 2012 through around June 2015, Graeve conspired with others
to rig bids during online foreclosure auctions in Palm Beach County, Florida.
“Real estate investors who deal in foreclosed properties
should be on notice that the Division will not tolerate the subversion of
competition in foreclosure auctions,” said Assistant Attorney General Makan
Delrahim of the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division. “The Division will continue to prosecute
antitrust violations that occur at these auctions, and will hold individuals
who engage in this conduct accountable.”
“Real estate investors who think they can swindle the system
to line their pockets with ill-gotten gains beware,” said Special Agent in
Charge Robert F. Lasky of the FBI Miami’s Field Office. “The FBI and our law
enforcement partners will vigorously investigate such schemes.”
The Department said that the primary purpose of the
conspiracy was to suppress and restrain competition in order to obtain selected
real estate offered at online foreclosure auctions at non-competitive
prices. When real estate properties are
sold at these auctions, the proceeds are used to pay off the mortgage and other
debt attached to the property, with any remaining proceeds available to the
homeowner. According to court documents,
the conspiracy artificially lowered the price paid at auction for such
homes. In the past several years, the
Division and its law enforcement partners have secured convictions of more than
100 individuals for rigging public mortgage foreclosure auctions in six
different states, including Florida.
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