A federal grand jury indicted Roosevelt Powell and two other men in fall 2006 on felony charges of wire fraud, conspiracy to commit theft of government funds and eventually added the charge of filing a false income tax return.
The U.S. Attorney's office alleged Powell, Will Smith, a former Lake County Council member, and former Gary attorney Willie Harris, conspired to steal $208,000 from Lake County government and the Gary Historical Society through an elaborate real estate scheme involving an abandoned grocery store in Gary's Miller section.
The former store's owners told county officials they wanted to donate the land and building to a public charity.
Smith, who was on the County Council at the time, learned of the potential donation and talked Harris, an attorney for the Historical Society, into having the historical society take over the property, which had an assessed value of $397,500 and owed the county $37,000 in back taxes.
The government alleged Powell, who was familiar with Gary real estate through his work as a county tax collector, was brought into the conspiracy and together Powell, Smith and Harris convinced a non-profit agency, the Gary Urban Enterprise Association, to buy the former store for $200,000 and convert it into a training center. GUEA later was judged to be a corrupt business venture.
Powell's company, U.S. Research, was accused of filing paperwork that fraudulently reduced the former grocery store's delinquent taxes, permitting the three men to pocket $150,000 in illegal profits. Powell's share was $25,000.
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The man Lake County government officials once set upon delinquent Lake County taxpayers has turned his collection skills on his former government employers.
Roosevelt Powell's U.S. Research Consultants Inc. recently won a favorable ruling in a five-year-long legal battle with county government for what he claims are hundreds of thousands of dollars in fees it owes him for the work he did as county tax collector.
Lake Superior Court Judge Calvin Hawkins recently accepted Powell's position the amount of delinquent taxes Powell can claim to have successfully collected is much larger than the amount county officials contend is reasonable.
That calculation is crucial in determining how much money Powell may be owed, since he was entitled, by contracts with the county, to a significant percent of the taxes he helped collect.
Lake County Attorney John Dull said he and county officials will discuss legal options in the case Monday during a closed-door meeting.
If successful, U.S. Research's Powell, a convicted felon and a millionaire from his county work, would receive a measure of satisfaction from the officials who once praised his services to the public and then abandoned him after his indictment on public corruption charges.
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