Department of Justice Seal 










FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE



THURSDAY, AUGUST 13, 1998



(202) 616-2765



TDD (202)514-1888





TWO NORTHERN VIRGINIA REAL ESTATE SPECULATORS INDICTED



IN BID-RIGGING SCAM





	WASHINGTON, D.C. - A federal grand jury today indicted two northern Virginia
real estate speculators for participating in a criminal bid-rigging scheme to hold down
prices at residential real estate auctions in northern Virginia, the Justice Department
announced.



	Today's charges are a result of the Department's ongoing antitrust investigation
into foreclosure auction bid rigging in northern Virginia.



	The Indictment, filed in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, charges Kenneth R.
Arnold, of Fairfax Station, and Alan Shams, of McLean, with conspiring with a group of 
real estate speculators who agreed not to bid against each other at real estate
foreclosure auctions in northern Virginia. Their agreement allowed them to buy real
estate for low, noncompetitive prices.



	Arnold's involvement in the bid-rigging scam began at least as early as August
1991, and continued through April 1995.  Shams joined the conspiracy as early as
1994.



	According to the charges, the conspirators would suppress bidding at public
auctions, allowing a designated bidder to purchase property.  They would later meet
secretly to hold a second auction at which each conspirator would bid an amount above
the public auction price.  The conspirator who bid the highest amount won the property. 
The difference between the public auction price and the secret auction price was the
group's illicit profit, and it was divided among the conspirators in payoffs made later.



	Arnold also was charged with mail fraud in connection with mailing a payoff in
the furtherance of the bid-rigging scheme.



	"This case is the next step in our ongoing aggressive efforts to stop this 
bid-rigging scam," said Joel I. Klein, Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Antitrust
Division.  "We will continue to prosecute it vigorously, with help from the FBI."



	Twelve individuals and one corporation were convicted between 1989 and 1991
after the Department's previous investigation of real estate auction bid rigging in
Washington, D.C.



	Two other individuals, Mija S. Romer and Khem C. Batra, were convicted of the 
northern Virginia bid-rigging charge following a trial in January 1997.  In addition, six
other individuals, Alexander C. Giap, Leo E. Gulley, Donald M. Kotowicz, G. Frank
Stinnett, Patricia A. Remele, and Lawrence L. Rosen, already have pleaded guilty as
part of the same bid-rigging scheme.



	The Department's Antitrust Division and Helen F. Fahey, U.S. Attorney in
Alexandria worked jointly to bring about today's charges.



	Klein said the northern Virginia antitrust investigation, which is being conducted
by the Division's Litigation I Section with the assistance of the Federal Bureau of
Investigation, is continuing.



	Arnold faces imprisonment of up to eight years and fines of up to $600,000 or
more depending on losses created by the crime.  Shams faces imprisonment of up to
three years and a fine of $350,000 or more depending on losses created by the crime.



	The maximum penalty for a person convicted of a Sherman Act bid-rigging
violation is three years' imprisonment and a fine of the greatest of $350,000, twice the
pecuniary gain the person derived from the crime, or twice the pecuniary loss suffered
by the victims of the crime.



	The maximum penalty for a person convicted of mail fraud is five years'
imprisonment and a fine of the greatest of $250,000, twice the pecuniary gain the
person derived from the crime, or twice the pecuniary loss suffered by the victims of the
crime.



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