I'm looking at this excerpt from the article:
Lichtman also says that Forman was the victim of shill bidding and other fraudulent activities under investigation by the FBI. "It is an open secret in the industry that Mastro Auctions engaged in massive shill bidding and other fraud against the public and we would want the balance to reflect that," Lichtman says. "We look forward to seeing the bidding records and seeing the truth about Mastro's fraud."
Is it actually known what the FBI is investigating? I thought that could only be inferred, since they haven't disclosed it. And can Mastro be made to reveal the bidding records for any or all of their auctions? I certainly want to know if I got ripped off by shill bidding at any point in the past 7 or so years, but isn't the burden of proof on the bidder?
On another note, this is a well written piece of journalism. It details the story, provides substantiated quotes from the people mentioned (minus Bill Mastro) and the writer doesn't provide his own conclusions, but lets the readers do that for themselves. There have been some shoot-the-messenger attacks on O'Keeffe here in the past, but it looks to me like he's doing his job.
Bill
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