Real Estate Professionals Indicted for Rigging Farmland Auction
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Written by Justice Department
Louisville, Kentucky - A federal grand jury in the Western District of Kentucky returned an indictment charging two Kentucky real estate professionals with conspiring to rig bids at an estate auction for farmland and timber rights.
According to the indictment, Barry Dyer and Mackie Shelton conspired with others to rig bids at a 2018 auction for hundreds of acres of farmland and a tract of timber rights. The indictment alleges that Dyer and Shelton demanded and accepted a $40,000 payoff from competing auction participants to stop bidding, artificially suppressing the sales price of the farmland.