Mystery company buys tax liens ‘like a machine’

[mahatmakanejeeves]

HOMES FOR THE TAKING: LIENS, LOSS AND PROFITEERS — Part 4

Mystery company buys tax liens ‘like a machine’
http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/investigative/2013/12/08/debt-collecting-machine/

Homes for the taking
Michael Sallah and Debbie Cenziper

The firm that threatened to foreclose on hundreds of struggling D.C. homeowners is a mystery: It lists no owners, no local office, no Web site. ... Aeon Financial is incorporated in Delaware, operates from mail-drop boxes in Chicago and is represented by a law firm with an address at a 7,200-square-foot estate on a mountainside near Vail, Colo.

Yet no other tax lien purchaser in the District has been more aggressive in recent years, buying the liens placed on properties when owners fell behind on their taxes, then charging families thousands in fees to save their homes from foreclosure.

Aeon has been accused by the city’s attorney general of predatory and unlawful practices and has been harshly criticized by local judges for overbilling. All along, the firm has remained shrouded in corporate secrecy as it pushed to foreclose on more than 700 houses in every ward of the District.

“Who the heck is Aeon?” said David Chung, a local lawyer who said he wasn’t notified that he owed $575 in back taxes on his Northwest Washington condominium until he received a notice from Aeon. “They said, ‘We bought the right to take over your property. If you want it back — pay us.’ ”
....

Steven Rich, Jennifer Jenkins and Alexia Campbell contributed to this report.

I own mutual funds, bonds, and stocks, including stock in a company that will benefit should the EPA regulations (proposed or actual, I'm not sure which) regarding emissions from coal plants get knocked down. I've worked for an aerospace and defense contractor, and I have money in their retirement fund. I don't join picket lines or protests. I'm about as far from a Marxist as anyone can get.

But this, being threatened by anonymous strangers with extortion or else the loss of your home, really gets to me. It's like primetime television. You think, "they can't get any worse than this," and then they go right ahead and prove you wrong.

Can't anyone stop this?

Part 1: How a small debt becomes a big problem
http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/investigative/2013/09/08/left-with-nothing/

Part 2: Suspicious bids go unnoticed in D.C.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/investigative/2013/09/09/suspicious-bidding/

Part 3: D.C. tax office mix-ups put homes in peril
http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/investigative/2013/09/10/mistakes-put-homes-in-peril/

Mark Schwartz, an attorney who owns this $1.7 million estate on a mountainside outside Vail, Colo., has been a constant force behind Aeon Financial. His law firm lists its address at the property. (Marc Piscotty for The Washington Post)

Schwartz has a medical degree from the University of Illinois and a law degree from John Marshall Law School in Chicago.

[Lily]

1. Aeon does NOT pay their own delinquent property taxes

Aeon forecloses upon others for delinquent property taxes, yet they do NOT pay their own delinquent property taxes on property they foreclosed upon for delinquent property taxes.

Read here for details http://realneo.us/content/aeon-financial-aka-capitalsource-bank-property-tax-foreclosure-thieves-does-not-pay-their-ow

[mahatmakanejeeves]

2. Thank you, Lily, and welcome to DU.

I was just about to post that. Seriously, I was seconds away, having just seen that link in the comments to the WaPo article.

Edited: following the original article in this series, the DC council passed a temporary fix. I do not know if they have anything permanent in the works.

Another link:

Company Owns Thousands Of Property Liens But No One Knows Who Owns The Company
http://consumerist.com/2013/12/09/company-owns-thousands-of-property-liens-but-no-one-knows-who-owns-the-company/

[mahatmakanejeeves]

3. Local laws do little to protect owners from aggressive investors

Local laws do little to protect homeowners
http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/investigative/2013/12/08/local-laws-do-little-to-protect-homeowners/

Written by Alexia Campbell, Danielle DeCourcey, Ted Mellnik
Published on December 8, 2013

Local governments placed tax liens on more than 1.6 million properties nationwide last year, but tax collectors from Illinois to Florida to New Jersey acknowledge there are few safeguards in local laws to prevent the private investors who bought them from taking advantage of distressed homeowners, according to a Washington Post study.
....

With few protections in place, abusive practices have emerged. ... In Florida in 1998, then-Attorney General Bob Butterworth found large companies were rigging auctions to win liens, costing homeowners hundreds of thousands of dollars.

In Georgia in 2002, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that tax lien companies were charging homeowners tens of thousands of dollars in penalties to reclaim their properties. The Birmingham News described a similar trend in Alabama three years later.

In 2006, The Capital newspaper in Annapolis reported that a small group of well-financed bidders had dominated the local auction, buying 74 percent of all the liens sold. ... In 2007, the Baltimore Sun conducted an investigation that found some of those same bidders were dominating tax auctions in Baltimore, where they were buying up water and sewer liens and charging high fees. Federal investigators would ultimately find that the bidders were rigging auctions across Maryland, leading to three convictions for criminal conspiracy.

Please go to the article to see the interactive graphic.

Citing abuses, federal lawmakers call for examination of tax-lien programs nationwide
http://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/citing-abuses-federal-lawmakers-call-for-examination-of-tax-lien-programs-nationwide/2013/09/19/c4f74b76-212b-11e3-b73c-aab60bf735d0_story.html

[mahatmakanejeeves]

4. Executive takes issue with Washington Post piece on Aeon Financial

Executive takes issue with Washington Post piece on Aeon Financial
http://www.crainscleveland.com/article/20131210/BLOGS03/131219975

EDITOR'S CHOICE -- SCOTT SUTTELL
Executive takes issue with Washington Post piece on Aeon Financial

Blog entry: December 10, 2013, 12:22 pm | Author: SCOTT SUTTELL

An executive representing Aeon Financial is taking issue with a Washington Post investigation of the company's business practices, which was a story summarized in Monday's Editor's Choice.

The executive, Mark A. Schwartz, CEO of Axis Capital Management Inc., sent a letter to The Post that called the paper's investigation “substantially misleading and inaccurate.” It's a long letter, and you can find the full text of it here, under the subheadline, “Aeon's response.”

Cleveland suffers from an 'extra-vicious' Aeon Financial
http://www.crainscleveland.com/article/20131209/BLOGS03/131209828

EDITOR'S CHOICE -- SCOTT SUTTELL
Cleveland suffers from an 'extra-vicious' Aeon Financial

Blog entry: December 9, 2013, 9:54 am | Author: SCOTT SUTTELL

(This blog post was updated at 11 a.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 10, to include a response from an Aeon Financial executive criticizing the Washington Post investigation.)

A must-read investigation by The Washington Post looks at a mysterious company called Aeon Financial, which buys tax liens in several U.S. cities, including Cleveland, then files foreclosure cases and charges families thousands in fees to save their homes.

Be sure to read Schwartz's letter. He's a saint.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

5. Georgia

In Georgia in 2002, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that tax lien companies were charging homeowners tens of thousands of dollars in penalties to reclaim their properties. The Birmingham News described a similar trend in Alabama three years later.

Tax lien sales shock, dismay
http://www.ajc.com/news/news/local/tax-lien-sales-shock-dismay/nQpB5/

Updated: 8:58 a.m. Monday, Feb. 7, 2011 | Posted: 12:52 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 25, 2010

By M.B. Pell

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Robin Gordon didn’t know about the tax lien Fulton County placed against her apartment until the county sold the lien to a private company, foreclosed and sold the property at a sheriff’s auction.

Now, to keep her property, she must pay $8,200 to satisfy the $291 she initially owed in delinquent taxes and penalties. “It’s just seems too ludicrous to be true,” Gordon said.

That’s a profit of 2,700 percent for Vesta Holdings and KOR Holdings, the sister companies that purchased Gordon’s lien, ordered the sheriff’s office to auction her apartment and then bought her property at the auction.

While most Georgia counties prohibit this practice, Fulton and Gwinnett counties routinely sell tax liens to private third parties who can pump up the lien value and use foreclosure to collect the debt.

State may target tax lien sales
http://www.ajc.com/news/news/state-may-target-tax-lien-sales/nWgFf/

Posted: 6:27 a.m. Monday, March 4, 2013

Fulton tax commissioner says they help schools, local governments

By Johnny Edwards and M.B. Pell

An Atlanta Journal-Constitution investigation has spurred some state lawmakers to try to reel in Fulton County Tax Commissioner Arthur Ferdinand, outraged that his quick sale of tax liens may have deprived the county of up to $20 million.

Fulton County Commissioner Liz Hausmann says the AJC’s findings also warrant an official investigation.

The AJC reported Sunday that Ferdinand sold thousands of property tax liens before the county would have been eligible for a 10 percent penalty. That resulted in the county handing over as much as $20 million in potential profits to a private company that is the biggest lien buyer – with a corresponding $20 million potential loss to the county.

Tax lien issues plague Fulton
http://www.ajc.com/news/news/local/tax-lien-issues-plague-fulton/nQP9j/

Updated: 8:42 a.m. Wednesday, Jan. 11, 2012 | Posted: 4:56 a.m. Wednesday, Jan. 11, 2012

By M.B. Pell

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

John Nelson fought Fulton County and the private tax lien industry for years to keep his house in Inman Park. He lost the battle and nearly lost much more.
....

Nelson’s money was in a county fund that now totals $11.9 million, all from the excess proceeds from foreclosure sales. Most belongs to former property owners like Nelson.

It’s a perfect pot of money to attract con artists, experts say: there’s lots of it — Fulton collected $47.8 million over the last 10 years; oversight is easily dodged; and property owners who are due the money frequently don’t know it belongs to them.

Fulton has a troubled history with the fund. Seven years ago, it was at the center of a scandal that reached into the highest levels of county government and deposed a Fulton sheriff.

And on and on and on and....

Email M. B. Pell

Email Johnny Edwards