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- - do you bid for items @ Heritage? (http://goldismoney.info/forums/showthread.php?t=409299)

tekhen | 09-21-2009 03:10 PM
do you bid for items @ Heritage? RICO Charges Aimed at Dallas Auction House and Execs, Says Mark Senter RICO Charges Aimed at Dallas Auction House DALLAS, Sept. 11 /PRNewswire/ -- A racketeering lawsuit aimed at Heritage Auctions and its top executives was expanded Wednesday, when a prominent Montana businessman joined the charges against what has been termed as a "massive auction scam." The suit charges the defendants used a secret, undisclosed shill, or fictitious bidder, at auctions, so winning bidders paid inflated prices. Defendants in the suit are Gregory J. Rohan; Steve Ivy; James L. Halperin; Marc D. Emory; Paul R. Minshull; Dagmar Byers; and their company, Heritage Auctions, Inc. Gary Hendershott, an expert in Civil War memorabilia, was joined in the suit by Chris Kortlander, a prominent Montana businessman. Kortlander alleges that he "consigned thousands of individual historical manuscripts and photographs to Heritage," but was deprived of profit because of Heritage's fraudulent and deceptive acts. Dallas-based Heritage is a well-known auction house, reportedly the third largest behind Sotheby's and Christie's. Mark Senter, attorney for the plaintiff, charged that "the Heritage defendants use N. P. Gresham, a fake bidder, to rip-off legitimate bidders." These charges appear to be the latest in a long line of lawsuits filed across the U.S. charging the defendants with fraudulently manipulating auctions. In 1989 the FTC ordered Heritage to pay $1.2 million in restitution to victims of Heritage and Halperin who had paid inflated prices for coins. Forbes magazine reported that on another occasion, an arbitration panel ruled that Heritage must pay $23 million to another plaintiff. "Texas law strictly and explicitly forbids shill, or fictitious, bidders at auctions, but James Halperin, Heritage's Chairman, admitted in sworn testimony at an injunctive hearing that N. P. Gresham does not exist. Yet Heritage later admitted that N.P. Gresham not only bids at auctions, but that no one outside of Heritage knows who Gresham is," said Senter. According to the lawsuit, the defendants are in violation of RICO by "secretly bidding in the name of N. P. Gresham at auctions in surreptitious competition with other valid bidders." Senter explained that using N. P. Gresham as a ghost bidder results in higher prices being paid at auctions by innocent, unknowing bidders. The practice overstates Heritage's ability to effectively get the best prices for items it auctions. Depositions in the lawsuit are scheduled to begin in the near future. At least Hommel told us he was a shill...

esoteric | 09-22-2009 04:01 AM
Re: do you bid for items @ Heritage? wow.....I brought a early 10 from them a while back. but isnt this quite common in auctions anyways?

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