A Florida-based agent for an unidentified financial products company pleaded guilty to fraud in rigging bids for investments sold to states and local governments, the sixth person to admit participating in an industrywide conspiracy to profit at taxpayer expense.

Adrian Scott-Jones of Morriston, whose former company handled auctions for investments that municipalities buy with proceeds of bond issues, pleaded guilty to fraud and wire- fraud charges, the U.S. Justice Department said today in a statement. The government said Scott-Jones ran sham auctions allowing bidders to win deals at below-market rates.

The charges are a result of an antitrust investigation begun more than three years earlier into the $2.8 trillion municipal-bond market. The probe has drawn in more than a dozen banks and financial services companies, including JPMorgan Chase & Co., Bank of America Corp. and UBS AG, according to court records and regulatory filings. 

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