|
COPYRIGHT 2001 The Dallas Morning News
Byline: Todd J. Gillman
May 29--Last year, a federal judge in Florida sent a former used car salesman to prison for bilking $117 million out of thousands of people. Instead of investing the money as promised, the con man spent most of it on 33 homes from Vermont to Key West, on cars and boats, loose diamonds and a pair of helicopters.
This month, the U.S. Marshals Service sold off one of the choppers, a fancy Italian-made Agusta with gold trim and leather seats. About 18,000 people viewed the auction, conducted via the Internet. The winner paid $655,000.
Another day, another online dollar for Uncle Sam.
The outfit that invented the Internet is now one of the biggest e-retailers, selling $3.6 billion in products and property through 164 Web sites last year, according to a new study funded by the Pew Internet & American Life Project -- from seized assets to surplus land, wild mustangs, train tickets, T-bills and T-shirts.
That's even more than the $2.8 billion racked up by online retail giant Amazon.com.
Of course, the government...
Read the full article for free courtesy of your local library.
|
Bookmark this article
Print this article
Link to this article
Email this article
Digg It!
Add to del.icio.us
RSS
