FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                          AT
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 1995                      (202) 616-2771
                                               TDD (202) 514-1888

  TWO NORTHERN VIRGINIA MEN PLEAD GUILTY IN CRIMINAL BID RIGGING
            SCHEMES INVOLVING RESIDENTIAL REAL ESTATE
                                 

     WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Two northern Virginia men pleaded guilty
today to participating in criminal bid rigging schemes to hold
down prices at residential real estate auctions in northern
Virginia, said the Department of Justice's Antitrust Division.
     The men conspired with a group of real estate speculators
who agreed not to bid against each other at certain real estate
foreclosure auctions in northern Virginia, the Department said. 
Their agreement allowed them to buy real estate for low,
noncompetitive prices.   
     The charges against Alexander Giap of McLean and Donald M.
Kotowicz of Sterling, filed today in U.S. District Court in
Alexandria, Virginia, are the result of the Department's ongoing
antitrust investigation into foreclosure auction bid rigging in
northern Virginia.  As a result of the Department's previous
antitrust investigation of real estate auction bid rigging in
Washington, D.C., 12 individuals and one corporation were
convicted.  
     Anne K. Bingaman, Assistant Attorney General in charge of
the Department's Antitrust Division, said, "After the
Department's crackdown on real estate auction bid rigging in
D.C., one would think that those in the area would have gotten
the message that if you commit this kind of criminal behavior,
you will be prosecuted.  We are committed to fully investigating
all aspects of this crime and prosecuting vigorously all
participants in what appears to be a long-standing conspiracy."
     The Department's Antitrust Division and U.S. Attorney Helen
F. Fahey, of the Eastern District of Virginia worked jointly to
bring about today's charges.
     Giap pleaded guilty today to bid rigging, wire fraud and
bank fraud for his involvement in three separate criminal schemes
that involved the buying, selling and loan refinancing of
residential real estate in northern Virginia.  His involvement in
the three schemes took place from 1991 until May 1995. 
     Kotowicz also pleaded guilty today for his participation in
the bid rigging conspiracy at real estate foreclosure auctions in
northern Virginia.  His involvement in the conspiracy took place
from September 1991 through April 1995.  The bid rigging charges
violate the Sherman Antitrust Act.      
     The Department charged that after the conspirators'
designated bidder bought a property at a public auction, they
would meet secretly to hold a second auction where each
conspirator bid the amount, or "premium," above the public
auction price he or she was willing to pay.  The conspirator who
bid the highest premium won the property.  That premium amount
was the group's illicit profit, and it was divided among the
conspirators in payoffs made later.  Giap participated in the bid
rigging conspiracy from November 1991 through March 1994. 
Kotowicz participated in the conspiracy from September 1991
through April 1995.
     Bingaman 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.  Giap and Kotowicz have pledged to cooperate with
investigators, Bingaman said.
     Giap was also charged with wire fraud for using "straw
buyers"--persons with good credit in whose names he filed false
documents--to fraudulently obtain approximately $750,000 in loans
from Briner Inc., a Middleburg, Virginia, mortgage company.  The
Department said he did this by submitting false loan
applications, tax returns, bank statements, and other documents
on behalf of the straw buyers. 
     Giap was also charged for his involvement in a massive bank
fraud scheme that took place from 1991 through April 1995.  Banks
and other lenders were fraudulently induced to make more than 40
loans, which totaled more than $5.7 million and related to
approximately 28 properties.  The Department said Giap caused
banks and other lenders to make loans they wrongly believed were
secured by first mortgages and thought would be used to pay off
other loans on the properties.  The Department charged that Giap
forged checks issued to pay off prior lenders and kept the money. 
The Department said he also forged documents to make banks think
he had paid off old loans so that the banks would make him new
loans.
     The maximum potential penalties for Giap's three offenses is
38 years imprisonment, a fine of $1.6 million and restitution for
the losses caused by the schemes.  The government estimates that
as a result of the fraud, six title companies will suffer most of
the approximately $5 million in losses.
     The maximum penalty for individuals convicted of a Sherman
Act violation committed after November 16, 1990, is three years
in jail and a fine of the greatest of $350,000, twice the
pecuniary gain the individual derived from the crime, or twice
the pecuniary loss suffered by the victims of the crime.
     The maximum penalty for an individual convicted of wire
fraud is five years imprisonment and a fine of $250,000.
     The maximum penalty for an individual convicted of bank
fraud is 30 years imprisonment and a fine of $1 million.
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95-504