An Alabama real estate investor agreed to plead guilty and serve prison time for his role in rigging bids and mail fraud at real estate foreclosure auctions, the ""Department of Justice"":http://www.justice.gov/ announced Friday.
[IMAGE] [COLUMN_BREAK]The charges were filed in the U.S. District Court in Mobile against Lawrence B. Stacy. Stacy was charged with one count of bid rigging and one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud. According to the plea agreement, Stacy agreed to serve six months in prison and pay a $10,000 fine.
Stacy participated in the bid rigging and mail fraud schemes from at least as early as May 2002 until at least January 2007, according to the department.
According to court documents, Stacy's scheme involved others who did not bid against another at public real estate foreclosure auctions. After a bidder at the public auction bought a property, a secret, second auction would be held where participants would bid an amount above the public auction price they were willing to pay. The highest bidder at the secret, non-public auction would then win the bid.
Stacy was also charged with conspiring to use U.S. mail to carry out his scheme.
To date, three individuals and one company have pleaded guilty in the ongoing investigation into fraud and bid rigging in southern Alabama.