CHICAGO — Before joining the City Council, Roderick Sawyer did legal work for a business that bought distressed properties from people, some of them behind on their property taxes — paying at times tens of thousands of dollars less than they were worth — an Illinois Answers Project investigation has found.
One sale — for a home in Beverly for $32,000 — was later invalidated by a judge after the homeowner was diagnosed with dementia.
The real estate investment firm Real Cheap Property, tried to buy the Beverly home of Kenneth Johnson, who was delinquent in his property taxes, and purchased three other Chicago properties, for amounts well under their market values in 2004 and 2005, with sales prices ranging from $1,500 to $32,000. Sawyer, the son of a Chicago mayor who is now running for the job himself in a campaign that has not gained traction, has his name on documents on four deals.
Kenneth Johnson’s brother, Robert Johnson, went to court to invalidate the sale of the Beverly home and eventually won after a trial in which Sawyer was called to testify. In his court action, Robert Johnson alleged that Sawyer and the owner of Real Cheap Property, Estella Long, “took advantage of Kenneth Johnson’s vulnerable position, inexperience . . . and used their superior knowledge to financially exploit him for their own personal gain . . . “
While a Cook County judge ruled in favor of Robert Johnson and invalidated the sale of the home, the judge did not find Sawyer did anything...
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