More Light Shines On Baltimore City Tax Sale Auctions & Bid-Rigging Allegations

In Baltimore, Maryland, The Huffington Post Investigative Fund reports (story appears in The Baltimore Sun):

• Baltimore City officials on Monday auctioned liens on 12,689 homes and properties whose owners failed to pay local taxes and municipal bills — a probable record and twice as many as in 2006 in the midst of Baltimore's housing bubble.

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• The city's record tax sale comes as the Justice Department continues a criminal investigation into bid-rigging by some investors. Federal prosecutors allege that the activity compromised as many as two dozen of the tax sales in Baltimore and several Maryland counties. Prosecutors say investors agreed in advance which properties to bid on, improperly reducing the money earned by municipalities. Three investors have pleaded guilty in the case.

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• Vicki Valentine lost her West Baltimore home that way one raw day in early February. Real estate investors snatched her property over what began with an unpaid city water bill of $362. [...] Valentine was incredulous when the price to keep her property shot past $3,600. Jobless and lacking the savings to pay, she said she could do little to stave off the day of reckoning. [...] Though Valentine had no way to know about it, some investors rigged the 2006 Baltimore tax sale auction that led to her eviction, federal prosecutors alleged in court.

• The roots of that conspiracy run deep, prosecutors said. For years, a handful of Baltimore real estate lawyers and their investment partners quietly dominated Maryland tax sale auctions, with few questions asked about their bidding tactics or collection policies.

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• Prosecutors went on to charge three men with conspiring to rig bids at 21 auctions in Baltimore and four other jurisdictions, including Montgomery and Prince George's counties between 2002 and 2007. All three have since pleaded guilty.(1) No other charges have been filed.

For the entire story, see City auctions liens on homes; investors can collect.

For another version of the same story, appearing in The Huffungton Post, see The Other Foreclosure Menace (Mortgage Paid Off, Woman Loses Home -- Over a Small Water Bill); and go here for accompanying VIDEO: Tapped Out: How an Unpaid Water Bill Cost a Baltimore Woman Her Home.

Go here for more on bid rigging at real estate-related auctions.

(1) In earlier stories related to this Maryland bid rigging prosecution, see:

• Bid-Rigging Attorney Gets 12 Months In 5-Year, $10 Million Conspiracy At Baltimore-Area Real Estate Tax Lien Auctions,
• Baltimore County lawyer pleads guilty to bid-rigging at tax auctions,
• Baltimore County lawyer to enter guilty plea in tax sale bid,
• Federal judge rules no joint-venture defense,
• Despite ruling, no deal ahead in bid-rigging case in Md.,
• Baltimore County businessman Jack W. Stollof to plead guilty to bid.