While Army Sgt. Kenneth Smith was driving supply convoys across northern Iraq in 2005, unpaid property taxes were piling up on two parcels of residential land on Lincoln Street in Gary.

In 2006, when the properties were listed for tax sale because of the unpaid bills, Smith's legitimate bankruptcy was invoked as a way to remove the land from the sale.

Problem was, Smith did not own the land, did not owe the tax bills, and his bankruptcy had nothing to do with those properties.

The Merrillville man never owned any land in Gary, according to county records and interviews with Smith and his attorney, David Dabertin.

Told that someone else had used his bankruptcy number to protect property from tax sale, Smith said he was shocked.

"It's just totally ridiculous how politicians or people who work for the county can manipulate the system," Smith said.

A Times investigation found that the initials of Faye Givens, the supervisor in the Lake County treasurer's office at the time, were handwritten on the tax sale removal form dated Sept. 29, 2006.

Neither Givens nor anyone living at 2156 Lincoln St. responded to The Times' request for comment.

Givens was fired last summer for her handling of bankruptcies pertaining to tax sale properties and now is under federal investigation for actions related to the tax sale list, county officials said.

Smith's case is just one of 67 that a Times investigation has uncovered in which federal bankruptcy cases -- that either did not exist, had nothing to do with the properties in question or were invalid at the time -- were used to shield from tax sale the homes of those delinquent in their property taxes.

Smith said his case amounted to a form of identity theft, although he has been informed by federal court officials that the use of his bankruptcy in the tax sale records is not recorded in federal court filings.

Smith spent 10 months in Mosul, Iraq, in 2005 working with the Army's 113th Engineering Division, many days dodging improvised roadside bombs to deliver ammunition and mail, he said.

All the while, someone on Lincoln Street was not paying their taxes. Smith said he was saddened that a part of his past that he's not proud of -- his bankruptcy -- was apparently being exploited by someone else.

"This is real personal to me," Smith said. "It's something I had to do, and I hate that I've done it. Now I don't need to be under bankruptcy, and I'm in the process of trying to get up from under the bankruptcy."

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