FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE AT TUESDAY, OCTOBER 7, 1997 (202) 616-2771 TDD (202) 514-1888 TENTH INDIVIDUAL CHARGED IN NORTHERN VIRGINIA REAL ESTATE AUCTION BID RIGGING INVESTIGATION WASHINGTON, D.C. -- A northern Virginia woman was charged today with participating in a criminal bid rigging scheme at residential real estate auctions in northern Virginia, the Department of Justice said. The Department's Antitrust Division said that Patricia A. Remele of McLean, Virginia conspired with a group of real estate speculators who agreed not to bid competitively against each other at certain real estate foreclosure auctions. Their agreement allowed them to buy real estate for low, noncompetitive prices. Remele is the tenth individual to be charged in the Department's ongoing antitrust investigation into foreclosure auction bid rigging in northern Virginia. Remele participated in the conspiracy from May 1987 until June 1994, the Department said. The conspirators would designate a bidder to buy a property at a public auction. Afterwards, they would hold a second, secret auction where each conspirator bid the amount, or "premium," he or she was willing to pay. The conspirator who bid the highest premium won the property. The difference between the premium amount and the sale price at public auction was the group's illicit profit, and it was divided among the conspirators in payoffs made later. Alexander C. Giap of McLean, Virginia, Leo E. Gulley of Oakton, Virginia, and Donald M. Kotowicz of Sterling, Virginia, pleaded guilty to similar charges in September 1995. In November 1996, G. Frank Stinnett of Vienna, Virginia also pleaded guilty to similar charges. Giap, who also pleaded guilty to wire fraud and bank fraud charges, currently is serving a five-year prison term at the Federal Correctional Institution at Cumberland, Maryland. Gulley and Kotowicz served seven-month terms at the same prison and were released in July 1996. Mija S. Romer of Arlington, Virginia and Khem C. Batra of Burke, Virginia were convicted of a similar bid rigging charge after a jury trial in January 1997. Romer was also convicted of bank fraud and conspiring to obstruct tax enforcement. In August 1997, Lawrence L. Rosen of Falls Church, Virginia was indicted for the same bid-rigging charge, mail fraud and conspiring to obstruct tax enforcement. Trial is scheduled for November 18, 1997 in Alexandria, Virginia. Joel I. Klein, Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Antitrust Division, said the northern Virginia investigation, which is being conducted by the Division's Litigation I Section with the assistance of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Internal Revenue Service's Criminal Investigation Division, is continuing. Remele has pledged to cooperate with investigators, Klein said. The maximum penalty for an individual 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, whichever is greater. ### 97-420