Foreclosure filings plummet in first half of year

The rate of foreclosure filings in Maryland in the first half of the year plunged 54.0 percent from the second half of 2010 and 68.5 percent from a year earlier, according to new data from RealtyTrac of Irvine, Calif.

The state rate of one filing per 263 households ranked 36th in the nation. The U.S. rate of one filing per 111 households was down 31.6 percent from the second half of 2010 and 35.1 percent from a year earlier.

Maryland had 8,905 filings in the first six months of 2011. Prince George’s County had the most — 3,358 — and the highest rate, one per 96 households.

The statewide rate in June was one filing per 1,358 households, down 4.2 percent from May and 72.7 percent from June 2010.

But the national decline shouldn’t be interpreted as a rebound of the housing market, said RealtyTrac CEO James J. Saccacio.

“Processing and procedural delays are pushing foreclosures further and further out — we estimate that as many as 1 million foreclosure actions that should have taken place in 2011 will now happen in 2012, or perhaps even later,” Saccacio said in a statement. “This casts an ominous shadow over the housing market, where recovery is unlikely to happen until the current and forthcoming inventory of distressed properties can be whittled down to a manageable number.”

Buyers and sellers in the Washington metro region signed 5,124 contracts in June, the most for that month in six years, according to RealEstate Business Intelligence, a subsidiary of Metropolitan Regional Information Systems of Rockville. But pending sales were down 6.9 percent from May. June’s median sales price of $379,990 was the highest in almost three years.

Conmed agrees to $57.2M takeover

Conmed Healthcare Management of Hanover, which has provided health care services to correctional facilities since 1984, agreed to be acquired for $57.2 million in cash by Ayelet Investments, an affiliate of James H. Desnick.

The acquisition is being financed by Levine Leichtman Capital Partners, a Los Angeles private equity firm, according to a Conmed statement. The deal is expected to close in the third quarter, pending stockholder approval.

Conmed provides services in Maryland, Arizona, Kansas, New Jersey, Oklahoma, Oregon, Tennessee, Virginia and Washington.

Tourism nonprofits get $2.3M from state

The Maryland Heritage Areas Authority has awarded about $2.3 million in 51 grants to Maryland nonprofits, including museums, historic preservations, tourism sites and education organizations to help expand tourism projects and activities that support state tourism-related job creation and economic development.

The authority oversees the state’s 12 heritage areas in 22 counties and Baltimore city.

Baltimore IT firm loses two bid protests

Waterfront Technologies, a Baltimore information technology company, has lost two efforts to overturn federal contract awards to competing bidders.

The Government Accountability Office denied Waterfront’s protest of a bid award to 21st Century Technologies of Front Royal, Va. Waterfront contended that the Department of Labor's evaluation of 21st Century’s bid contained errors of the company's past performance, technical proposals and proposed prices, according to a GAO report.

Waterfront, which had submitted the high bid, $24.0 million, had successfully protested a prior award of the contract to another bidder. 21st Century had the low bid on the IT contract, $14.4 million.

The GAO also denied Waterfront’s request for reconsideration of its denied protest of another Labor Department contract, which was awarded to Astor & Sanders of Rockville.

The GAO dismissed Waterfront's request because it was not filed in a timely manner.

Bail bondsman gets 51 months for fraud, tax charges

Milton Tillman Jr., 54, of Baltimore was sentenced July 8 in U.S. District Court in Baltimore to 51 months in prison for filing a false tax return, running a bail bond business while imprisoned and without a license, and defrauding Ports America Baltimore, where he worked, according to federal prosecutors.

Also, Tillman's son Milton Tillman III, 33, also of Baltimore, was sentenced to five years' probation, six months of community confinement and six months of home detention.

According to his plea agreement, Milton Tillman Jr. began serving a federal prison sentence for tax-related crimes on Oct. 26, 1996. He arranged for his son to incorporate and manage 4 Aces Bail Bonds in Baltimore, but actually operated the business from prison without a license.

Under his management, 4 Aces’ revenues grew from $188,337 in 2000, the year before he was released, to $5.8 million in 2006.

In 2001, Tillman was obliged to get a job as part of his supervised release. He worked as a longshoreman, mostly with Ports America, and was paid for at 258 shifts, of which he was a "no-show" for 121, according to his plea agreement. He used his job to hide taxable income from the bail bond business.

Design executive gets 18 months for fraud

Darlene Mathis-Gardner, the founder and president of Systems Design in Silver Spring, was sentenced Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., to 18 months in prison in connection with a fraud conspiracy involving a design contract with the Department of Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

She also was sentenced by Judge Richard J. Leon to 36 months of supervised release and to pay $389,738 in restitution. Mathis-Gardner pleaded guilty April 18.

In bidding for an interior design contract on the agency’s Potomac Center North building in Southwest Washington in 2007, Mathis-Gardner and others lied about the company’s performance record, according to her plea agreement. Based on these misrepresentations and false documents, the General Services Administration awarded her company a contract worth about $1.3 million.

According to Federal Election Commission records, from 2007 to 2010, Mathis-Gardner contributed almost $30,000 to political candidates and parties, almost entirely to Republicans.