Bill would eliminate tax sale fraud

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Tax sale fraud is a crime you may not be familiar with but a number of Indiana homeowners have been victimized, and some of them lost large sums of money.

It starts when a homeowner falls behind on his property taxes. In a number of cases that homeowner was deceived into striking a deal with an out of state businessman to make the tax problems go away.

In one case a man paid $450 for the deal and unknowingly signed away his home ownership in the process.

After a tax sale produced a surplus of more than $93,000, the equity in the home, the out of state businessman kept the money.

Attorney General Greg Zoeller has sued to recover that payment and almost fifty others.

State lawmakers, passed a bill that will require the county to keep the money after a tax sale and return to it the homeowner.

The goal is to create a circumstance where homeowners can no longer be victimized. Most of the victims are elderly.

“They may have had the property left over to them,” said Rep. Cherrish Pryor (D-Indianapolis.) “They don’t realize necessarily that they even have these dollars and they’ve fallen on hard times.”

“The scam can really be seen in the fact that people didn’t understand that they had money available,” said Zoeller.

Governor Mike Pence must sign the bill before it becomes law but it won almost unanimous approval in the General Assembly.

Tax sale fraud is a crime that is taking place most often in Marion, Johnson, and Lake Counties.

The Attorney General sued businesses based in Las Vegas, Stillwater, Oklahoma and Jacksonville, Florida last month for taking advantage of Indiana homeowners.