Danville Man Facing Obstruction of Justice Charge

A Danville man is now facing an obstruction of justice charge after already being indicted on rigging bids and mail fraud charges in connection to public real estate foreclosure auctions, the Department of Justice announced Wednesday.

Andrew Katakis was indicted in federal court in Sacramento. The foreclosure auctions Katakis is accused of manipulating occurred in San Joaquin County.

Katakis was originally indicted on Dec. 7, 2011 with four other real estate investors — Donald Parker, Anthony Joachim, W. Theodore Longley and Wiley C. Chandler. They are allege to have agreed to suppress and restrain competition by rigging bids to obtain selected properties offered at public auctions.

They are also accused of conspiring to fraudulently acquire titles to selected properties sold at the public auctions and to divert money to co-conspirators that would have gone to the beneficiaries.

Chandler pleaded guilty on Feb. 24, 2012.

For the new charge, the Department of Justice says when Katakis was notified that the grand jury had subpoenaed his bank account, he deleteded electronic records and documents related to the conspiracies. The indictment also alleges Katakis had others install and use a software program that overwrote deleted electronic records and documents so that they could not be viewed or recovered.

“Obstruction of a grand jury investigation is a crime the Antitrust Division takes seriously,” said Bill Baer, Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Department of Justice's Antitrust Division. “We will prosecute those who subvert the competitive process, as well as those who attempt to conceal their illegal actions by destroying evidence.”

The Modesto Bee says Katakis acknowledges doing business with the others but says he wasn't in on the game, according to legal paper filed by his attorney earlier this year.