All News

08/24/2010

TREASURY TROVE

It is the stuff of reality TV. Maybe the Bravo Network. We're talking about public auctions of seized and forfeited assets by the U.S. Treasury, that is. Secretary Timothy F. Geithner's agency will stage its final auction of the year in a New Jersey warehouse next week, featuring an astonishing assortment of gold jewelry - some carefully labeled "oversized hip-hop rapper style" - plus gold nuggets and bars, an airplane, expensive cosmetics, fancy shoes, tons of exercise equipment and oddities like gardening stuff and door handles. There's considerable loot; the agency stages 300 auctions a year.

"We've auctioned of a horse in Arizona, 54,000 frozen scallops in Baltimore, 605 loose diamonds in Manhattan - I'm not surprised by anything I see anymore," Rick Levin, who conducts auctions as a subcontractor for the agency, tells Inside the Beltway. "We get several hundred people usually, private buyers and dealers - and more, if we've got things like Ferraris or Rolexes on the list."

The Chicago-based auctioneer says his contract covers U.S. law enforcement agencies participating in the Treasury Forfeiture Fund, including the Department of Homeland Security, Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Secret Service, and the Internal Revenue Service, among others. See the details here about the upcoming event: www.treas.gov/auctions/treasury/gp.Type your content here...

Jennifer Harper

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/aug/24/treasury-trove/

All News