"American consumers have the right to expect the benefits of free and open competition -- the best goods and services at the lowest prices. Public and private organizations often rely on a competitive bidding process to achieve that end. The competitive process only works, however, when competitors set prices honestly and independently. When competitors collude, prices are inflated and the customer is cheated. Price fixing, bid rigging, and other forms of collusion are illegal and are subject to criminal prosecution by the Antitrust Division of the United States Department of Justice."

Source: PRICE FIXING, BID RIGGING, AND MARKET ALLOCATION SCHEMES: WHAT THEY ARE AND WHAT TO LOOK FOR. AN ANTITRUST PRIMER. United States Department of Justice, Antitrust Division.

What if anti-trust laws are violated by a component of the United States Department of Justice? Who do people report the crime to? That is the problem for thousands of independent paralegals and court document preparation businesses across America. In recent years, many independent and franchise business owners have been dragged into United States Bankruptcy Courts and charged with a series of violations of Sect. 110 of the Bankruptcy Code.

Not all are guilty of the allegations filed against them. Since the U.S. Trustee Program has a secretive data base to track petition preparers and an intentional program to attack them, (1) all petition preparers, even the honest ones, are being humiliated, slandered, and put out of business by United States Trustees. The system is designed so that there is no escaping from their clutches.

Some preparing bankruptcy petitions tell horrifying tales of being "railroaded" by U.S. Trustees. Some of these independent business people are enjoined from preparing bankruptcy petitions. If not enjoined, bankruptcy court judges price-fix what they can charge. Some are charged with practicing law without a license, (UPL). Others are charged with deceptive advertising.

This section is dedicated to independent paralegals and court document preparers to share their stories, cases, and reveal how the U.S. Trustee Program is using color of official right to violate anti-trust laws.

Report No. 03-17, March 2003, Office of the Inspector General on The U.S. Trustee Program's Efforts to Prevent Bankruptcy Fraud and Abuse, stated the following:

Develop an "Anti-Petition Preparer Initiative" that includes creating a national database of petition preparers to aid in the detection of fraudulent activity.