Swindlepalooza
By Matt Wood in News on Aug 7, 2006 3:51PM
One would think that with Lollapalooza drawing 170,000 people to the lakefront, the Tribune might devote its lead story to the music festival, if not to review the performances, to at least explain to the uninformed what was going on, and why all those sweaty kids wouldn't let them turn onto Congress this weekend. Whether you're a music fan or not, that's a pretty big happening with a major impact on the city for three days. But instead, yesterday we were treated to a story about an intricate business swindle involving shady real estate deals and a fake notary named "Arthur Knuckles," leaving us to ponder the vagaries of the property tax code over our bowl of Cheerios, instead of who the hell Gnarls Barkley is and whether or not he's related to the big bald guy who used to play for the Sixers.
The story is a pretty nifty piece of investigative reporting though, because it must've taken months of research to untangle this stuff. Borophyll. Three people were involved with taking ownership of 38 vacant lots from nonprofits and churches without the existing owners' consent. Most of the deals took place as part of tax scavenger sales, auctions in which the government sells property with taxes delinquent over two years to the highest bidder. Buyers can get such properties on the cheap without having to pay the back taxes or interest. They're kind of a last resort for the county, which is trying to squeeze what little money they can out of land whose owners are either bankrupt or skipped town. The thing is, the three conspirators weren't taking title in legitimate tax sales; they were forging documents and transferring the properties to phony corporations, with paperwork notarized by one Arthur Knuckles, who Chicagoist believes may be an associate of Gnarls Barkley.
Are you still awake? If you didn't make it through the whole Trib article, or our tortured summary there, feel better in knowing that one of the conspirators, a disbarred attorney from Berwyn named Philip Radmer, was charged with felony theft of 22 of the lots. Mr. Knuckles has yet to be apprehended however.