Daniels released the Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, real estate magnate on his own recognizance and placed no restrictions on Taubman's U.S. travel. However, he ordered Taubman to notify the government if he planned to leave the country. If Taubman is convicted, he could be sentenced to a maximum three-year prison term. It alleged that the two former chairmen conspired to fix commissions, instead of undercutting each other's rates. Auction houses generally accept goods on consignment from individuals and entities for sale at auctions.
Sellers make payments, known as commissions, to the auction houses for their services.
The commissions are a percentage of the sale price of the goods sold at auction. Before the alleged scheme started, the two houses competed primarily on the basis of commission fees because they both provided substantially the same service to sellers, the Justice Department said. However sellers lost their main bargaining tool because of the conspiracy, the government claimed. In addition to fixing commission rates, the indictment also alleged the defendants exchanged customer information in order to monitor and enforce the commission rate schedules. The federal investigation into possible price fixing by the auction houses led both Taubman and Diana Brooks, his protegee and Sotheby's former president and chief executive, to resign from their positions in February 2000.