The Indianapolis Journal

FANT, THE FERRET.

Who He Is, and His Method of Discovering Dishonest Tax Returns to the Assessor.

"Who is Fant, the Ferret?"

The name of "The Ferret" was given to Charles Fant, about ten years ago, by the late George Harding. Fant used to ferret out tax-payers who had failed to pay the full amount of taxes they should have paid, and he got a good percentage of the amount afterward collected from them. He usually made his bargain with the County Commissioners, and he has worked over a good number of counties in this State and in neighboring States. His way of finding those who had defrauded the county by not making honest returns to the assessor was by taking the mortgage and probate records and comparing them with the lists of the individuals as returned to the assessor. He furnished the information thus acquired to the county auditor, and that officer put the amount on the duplicate for the treasurer to collect.

The ferret business has virtually died out on account of the law passed by the Legislature of 1883 preventing County Commissioners from employing any one other than the auditor, treasurer or assessor to do such work. So an outsider can no longer get direct employment in this line. Of course, either of these officers can employ a person to look such matters up. The ferret business was very profitable when the ferret could make a direct contract with the County Commissioners.

A couple of cases, one from Howard and one from Steuben county, went up to the Supreme Court to recover several thousand dollars taxes, which they had been compelled to pay by The Ferret. The court decided that such contract was illegal under the law, having been made with individuals outside of the officers mentioned, but they could not recover, as they really owed the taxes. Their money was in the treasury, and they could not get it out.