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From the USA Today.
Auction is opportunity to nab booty prizes
Tue Apr 16, 6:38 AM ET
Marco R. della Cava USA TODAY
The signs of our times are always writ large in the culture, from our favorite TV shows (we're still millionaire wannabes) to the costumes that sell out at Halloween (fantasy figures now rub shoulders with heroic public servants).
So what do today's Treasury Department (news - web sites) auctions say about the modern-day criminal? Scratch for a moment that image of pastel-clad Miami Vice cops busting drug lords as they pull into Key West in Cigarette speedboats. Today's perps are more likely to prefer starched Brooks Brothers shirts to black leather Gucci jackets.
At the department's largest-ever Seized Property Auction, outside Los Angeles on Thursday, many of the prized items -- which span cars to jewels to aircraft parts -- come from busts on illegal Internet gambling, counterfeit computer software and straightforward securities fraud.
''We've noticed that more of these high-end items are coming from people who don't fit the traditional criminal profile,'' says Britney Bartlett of EG&G Technical Services, an asset management company in charge of putting the Treasury haul on the auction block. ''This likely will continue with the IRS stepping up its crackdowns on white-collar crime.''
Treasury auctions sell off illegal spoils confiscated by agents of the Secret Service (news - web sites), Customs Service and Internal Revenue Service (news - web sites). In the past 10 years, they have brought in $156 million for both victim restitution and various federal programs.
Thursday's smorgasbord of 450 lots is a brand-dropper's dream. Ferraris and other exotic sports cars litter the lot like clunkers at Rent-A-Wreck. But Bartlett cautions to expect ''deals, not steals.'' If bidding on an item doesn't come close to its appraised value, the object will go unsold. Sorry, gearheads, no Porsches for $100.
''But what you do get,'' Bartlett says, ''is bragging rights to something that has been owned by someone with quite a past.''
Despite the nation's sour economic climate and a more conservative attitude about flaunting wealth, auction organizers say they expect bidding by wholesalers and the public alike to be healthy. Bartlett says the anticipated haul from the day's sales is about $3 million. That's triple the average Treasury auction. Some 500 registered bidders are expected in person, with others phoning in on more exotic listings such as a 1941 Boeing-Stearman airplane.
Among the other offerings:
* 1998 Ferrari F355. Seized by the Customs Service along with a $75,000 Lincoln Navigator, a $200,000 home and $600,000 in cash. From an illegal Internet gambling operation that never bothered to pay out winnings. It used players' credit-card bets to buy these seized assets.
* 2001 Mercedes CL600. Brought in by the IRS -- along with a 2001 Lexus LX 470, stereo equipment, video camera, artwork and a flat-screen TV -- in a case involving money laundering, wire fraud and mail fraud with links between Los Angeles, Winston-Salem, N.C., and Sarasota, Fla.
* 1999 40-foot Sea Ray yacht. The IRS nabbed this boat -- along with a 2000 Chevy Corvette, a 2000 Baja 29-foot boat with trailer and a 1999 Cadillac El Dorado -- from a Las Vegas man involved in securities fraud.
* 1976 Rolls-Royce. Seized by the Secret Service and forfeited as part of an investigation into a half-million-dollar bank fraud that utilized counterfeit checks.
But if you long for a souvenir that's less business world and more underworld, fear not. This lot's for you: a late-model GMC Savana van, garnered during a joint operation between the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and other agencies. Comes complete with bullet holes.
Auction is opportunity to nab booty prizes
Tue Apr 16, 6:38 AM ET
Marco R. della Cava USA TODAY
The signs of our times are always writ large in the culture, from our favorite TV shows (we're still millionaire wannabes) to the costumes that sell out at Halloween (fantasy figures now rub shoulders with heroic public servants).
So what do today's Treasury Department (news - web sites) auctions say about the modern-day criminal? Scratch for a moment that image of pastel-clad Miami Vice cops busting drug lords as they pull into Key West in Cigarette speedboats. Today's perps are more likely to prefer starched Brooks Brothers shirts to black leather Gucci jackets.
At the department's largest-ever Seized Property Auction, outside Los Angeles on Thursday, many of the prized items -- which span cars to jewels to aircraft parts -- come from busts on illegal Internet gambling, counterfeit computer software and straightforward securities fraud.
''We've noticed that more of these high-end items are coming from people who don't fit the traditional criminal profile,'' says Britney Bartlett of EG&G Technical Services, an asset management company in charge of putting the Treasury haul on the auction block. ''This likely will continue with the IRS stepping up its crackdowns on white-collar crime.''
Treasury auctions sell off illegal spoils confiscated by agents of the Secret Service (news - web sites), Customs Service and Internal Revenue Service (news - web sites). In the past 10 years, they have brought in $156 million for both victim restitution and various federal programs.
Thursday's smorgasbord of 450 lots is a brand-dropper's dream. Ferraris and other exotic sports cars litter the lot like clunkers at Rent-A-Wreck. But Bartlett cautions to expect ''deals, not steals.'' If bidding on an item doesn't come close to its appraised value, the object will go unsold. Sorry, gearheads, no Porsches for $100.
''But what you do get,'' Bartlett says, ''is bragging rights to something that has been owned by someone with quite a past.''
Despite the nation's sour economic climate and a more conservative attitude about flaunting wealth, auction organizers say they expect bidding by wholesalers and the public alike to be healthy. Bartlett says the anticipated haul from the day's sales is about $3 million. That's triple the average Treasury auction. Some 500 registered bidders are expected in person, with others phoning in on more exotic listings such as a 1941 Boeing-Stearman airplane.
Among the other offerings:
* 1998 Ferrari F355. Seized by the Customs Service along with a $75,000 Lincoln Navigator, a $200,000 home and $600,000 in cash. From an illegal Internet gambling operation that never bothered to pay out winnings. It used players' credit-card bets to buy these seized assets.
* 2001 Mercedes CL600. Brought in by the IRS -- along with a 2001 Lexus LX 470, stereo equipment, video camera, artwork and a flat-screen TV -- in a case involving money laundering, wire fraud and mail fraud with links between Los Angeles, Winston-Salem, N.C., and Sarasota, Fla.
* 1999 40-foot Sea Ray yacht. The IRS nabbed this boat -- along with a 2000 Chevy Corvette, a 2000 Baja 29-foot boat with trailer and a 1999 Cadillac El Dorado -- from a Las Vegas man involved in securities fraud.
* 1976 Rolls-Royce. Seized by the Secret Service and forfeited as part of an investigation into a half-million-dollar bank fraud that utilized counterfeit checks.
But if you long for a souvenir that's less business world and more underworld, fear not. This lot's for you: a late-model GMC Savana van, garnered during a joint operation between the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and other agencies. Comes complete with bullet holes.