Foreclosure Auction Buyer: "Object Is To Get Cheapest Price We Can, Not To Bid Each Other Up" As Intimidation Accusations Flare Up At Courthouse Sales

In Lee County, Florida, The News Press reports:

• [T]om Bruzzesi, an animated reality show hopeful, met with John Carney, a short, dark-haired slave to the Bluetooth in his left ear. Bruzzesi, Carney and a third man, Mike Kopyta, are the most prolific foreclosure auction buyers in Lee County, nabbing more than half of the approximately 500 properties not taken back by the banks since Jan. 1, 2008, according to county figures obtained through a public-records request. During auctions in March, veterans Carney and Bruzzesi, along with other regulars, would share hand signals, laughs and fist bumps with obvious familiarity as the auction progressed.

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• Carney has attended auctions for 11 years and has come to know the main bidders. "The object is to get the cheapest price we can, and not to bid each other up," Carney said before an auction in March. Fort Myers resident Bruzzesi, 44, and Cape Coral residents Carney, 42, and Kopyta, 37, rarely challenge one another, according to bid sheets on file with the Lee Clerk of Court's office.

• Through mid-March, Bruzzesi had not bid against Kopyta on a property Kopyta won since January. Kopyta has not seriously challenged a property Bruzzesi landed since December, though there were a few bidding wars prior to then. In all, Kopyta has bid against Carney or Bruzzesi on five occasions since January 2008. Carney has never bid against Bruzzesi on a property Bruzzesi landed, while Bruzzesi has logged only one bid on a property Carney eventually won.

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• About two months ago, Clerk of Court [Charlie] Green said a verbal complaint about possible intimidation by Bruzzesi came to his attention. Green said he doesn't remember who made the complaint, but that it prompted him to make an informal announcement warning all bidders he has the authority to remove them permanently.

• "We had people doing intimidation," Green said from his office, a short walk down the hall from the auction spot. "All I want is open and honest bidding." Bruzzesi's proposed reality show persona is abrasive and in your face. Bruzzesi said that in the past he would intimidate other bidders, but Green's warning led to change.

For more, see Moguls buy up Lee County's foreclosures (go here for entire story on one web page).

Go here for posts and links to stories involving collusive bidding / bid-rigging charges in connection with real estate and foreclosure-related auctions.