kickbacks alleged in suit

Originally Posted by randallscott35

But Mike this also goes on in private purchases, essentially the same ballgame, no?

Not like that.
Private purchases are much tougher to get away with at a level like that.
Sometimes you can get a bigger commission, but you really can't represent a 500 thousand dollar horse to be a million dollar horse. Its pretty obvious what a horse is in the ballpark of after it runs.
What does sometimes happen, which is legal, is that an agent who has a lot of money(more than me, I don't have a half mill under the mattress) will buy one privately and then sell it to client at a markup. Thats not illegal, ist called arbitrage, or capitalism.
There is no standard commission that someone has to pay you. You can agree on 10%, 5%, 20%, etc. As long as you only take the commission from one side then you are ok. If you take say, 10% from the seller, and then bill the buyer 5% without disclosing the 10% you took from the other side, you are on thin ice.
Syndicates do this all time. One of those partnerships may buy a prospect for 350 grand and then sell pieces of it at a value of 500 grand.
The auction thing is much different. In cases that Richi describes, its outright fraud and price fixing.