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Jan
2
The Northwest Indiana Times reports that a federal investigation has been launched into Lake County tax sale properties in a story about properties that were taken off of the tax sale list in September 2006. The paper reports that 22,000 properties were certified for the October 2006 tax sale.
A Times investigation found that the initials of Faye Givens, the supervisor in the Lake County treasurer’s office at the time, were handwritten on the tax sale removal form dated Sept. 29, 2006.
Neither Givens nor anyone living at 2156 Lincoln St. responded to The Times’ request for comment.
Givens was fired last summer for her handling of bankruptcies pertaining to tax sale properties and now is under federal investigation for actions related to the tax sale list, county officials said.
(Kenneth) Smith’s case is just one of 67 that a Times investigation has uncovered in which federal bankruptcy cases — that either did not exist, had nothing to do with the properties in question or were invalid at the time — were used to shield from tax sale the homes of those delinquent in their property taxes.
