The St. Thomas home auctioned by the U.S. Marshals Office as part of a Washington D.C. tax scam sold Wednesday for $709,350, according to the online auctioning site.
The house, at Sorgenfri 5-1, had been owned by Richard Walters, 49, of Bowie, Md. Walters is the brother of Harriette Walters, an employee of the District of Columbia Office of Tax and Revenue. She was arrested in November 2007 and charged with heading a tax-refund scam that netted approximately $48 million by issuing phony property-tax refund checks to non-existent businesses.
Hariette Walters was sentenced June 30 to 17 and a half years in prison for her role in the scheme. Her brother was sentenced in November to 51 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release.
The auction opened Monday on line at http://www.bid4assets.com, with a minimum bid of $212,500. Prospective bidders were required to post a deposit of $42,500.
According to Jenny Lynch of the website, deposits were placed by 14 bidders, from St. Thomas, Dayton, OH, Darien, CT, Hinsdale, IL, and San Antonio, TX.
Of the 14 qualified bidders, five bidders submitted a total of 27 bids before the auction closed Wednesday.
The winning bid of $709,350 came from the one of the bidders on St. Thomas.
Another St. Thomas property of Richard Walters, also forfeited to the Marshals in connection with the D.C. tax scam, will be auctioned next month. The property is a parcel of land, approximately .277 acres. The minimum bid will be $45,100, and the Marshals will require a $4,510 deposit to bid. Online bidding will start Aug. 24.
