Pleasanton Man Guilty Of Rigging Foreclosure Auction Bids
SACRAMENTO (AP) -- Federal prosecutors say an East Bay man has pleaded guilty to conspiring to rig bids at foreclosure auctions in a county among the hardest hit by the real estate bust.
The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of California said 38-year-old Yama Marifat of Pleasanton pleaded guilty Friday to the conspiracy.
Prosecutors say Marifat and a group of real estate speculators agreed not to bid against each other at San Joaquin County public foreclosure auctions to keep prices down.
The group would then hold a private auction where the property went to the conspirator willing to pay the most above the public price. The speculators would split the difference between the prices at public and private auction as a payoff among themselves.
Marifat faces up to 10 years in prison for bid rigging and 30 years for mail fraud, plus fines up to at least $2 million.
The U.S. Attorney's Office said Marifat is the fifth person to plead guilty in connection with the conspiracy, which was uncovered as part of an ongoing federal investigation into fraud and bid-rigging in real estate auctions in San Joaquin County.
According to an Associated Press analysis of U.S. counties' rates of unemployment, bankruptcy and foreclosures, San Joaquin was among the top five most-stressed counties in the U.S. during the depths of the economic crisis.
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