Real Estate Executive Pleads Guilty to Bid Rigging at Auctions of Foreclosed

[Bluebear]

SACRAMENTO, CA—United States Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner and Assistant Attorney General
Christine Varney of the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division announced today that Anthony B.
Ghio, 43, of Stockton, pleaded guilty today before United States District Judge Edward J. Garcia to
conspiring to rig bids at public real estate foreclosure auctions held in San Joaquin County.

These charges arose from an ongoing federal antitrust investigation of fraud and bidding irregularities in
certain real estate auctions in San Joaquin County. The investigation is being conducted by the U.S.
Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of California, the Antitrust Division’s San Francisco Office, the
Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the San Joaquin County District Attorney’s Office.

According to Assistant United States Attorneys Robin R. Taylor and Russell L. Carlberg, who are
prosecuting the case with assistance from Barbara Nelson and Richard Cohen of the Antitrust Division,
Ghio admitted in his guilty plea that he conspired with a group of real estate speculators who agreed not
to bid against each other at certain public real estate foreclosure auctions in San Joaquin County. The
primary purpose of the conspiracy was to suppress and restrain competition and obtain selected real
estate offered at San Joaquin County public foreclosure auctions at noncompetitive prices.

Court documents show that after the conspirators’ designated bidder bought a property at a public
auction, they would hold a second private auction. Each participating conspirator would submit bids in
the private auction above the public auction price. The conspirator who bid the highest amount at the
end of the private auction won the property. The difference between the noncompetitive price at the
public auction and the winning bid at the second auction was the group’s illicit profit, and it was divided
among the conspirators in payoffs. Ghio participated in the bid-rigging scheme from April 2009 until
October 2009.

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