LA County Assessor probed in alleged $170M property tax scandal

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Two L.A. City councilmen will call for a reassessment of properties Tuesday in the wake of a property tax scandal that is rocking the L.A. County Assessor's Office.

L.A. county appraiser Scott Schenter was arrested in Oregon Monday and has been charged with 60 counts of corruption after values of over 100 properties in West L.A. were allegedly purposely lowered from 1988 to 2011 in exchange for campaign contributions to Schenter's boss, County Assessor John Noguez.

Council members Dennis Zine and Paul Krekorian scheduled a news conference in front of city hall Tuesday morning to address the incident.

Schenter claims he was pressured by Noguez to lower property values of the homes by more than $170 million to raise campaign money. Noguez denies the allegations but has acknowledged that Schenter helped raise money for campaign.

District Attorney investigators have searched Noguez's home and office and L.A. County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley says the incidents are not isolated. An investigating has also been launched into Noguez's campaign contributors and office employees.

Schenter will be extradited back to California to face the charges against him and he has resigned from his position. Noguez is still in office despite calls to step down.

The city has reportedly lost hundreds of millions of dollars in tax revenue because of scandal.

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los angeles news, subha ravindhran

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