Aeon Financial and its law firm operate out of several mail drops in the Chicago area. Click on the image to view the gallery. (Debbie Cenziper / The Washington Post)

Tax lien purchaser Aeon Financial has moved from Maryland, Ohio, D.C. and other jurisdictions with little government scrutiny.

Aeon ended up with only a handful of properties, instead pressing for the fees from the property owners pulled into court.

One of the first to challenge Aeon’s bills was John Kazemi, a 71-year-old retired teacher who waged a two-year battle with the company.

In 2007, he discovered that Aeon had purchased a $500 lien on a condominium parking space he owned in Northeast Washington. The D.C. tax office had been mistakenly sending the annual bills to the former owner, and Kazemi said he had no idea that he owed the money.

As soon as he received a court summons from Aeon, he paid the $500 in back taxes.

But Schwartz, Aeon’s attorney, also demanded that Kazemi pay $4,200 for Aeon’s legal fees and costs — more than eight times the tax debt. Kazemi hired an attorney to fight the bill, but Schwartz refused to drop the case until the money was paid, writing in an e-mail, “We are fully prepared to litigate.”

Kazemi’s attorney pushed back: “You run a factory and we are not going to be victims to it.”

Schwartz, who has a medical degree from the University of Illinois and a law degree from John Marshall Law School in Chicago, wrote: “Let’s litigate it. My pleasure.”

When the case went to court, the judge slashed the fees to $952, saying they were “excessive” and “unnecessary.” In one instance, the law firm billed one hour for court hearings — the judge cut the time to 12 minutes. In another, the firm billed nearly five hours to review documents — the judge reduced the time to 30 minutes.

A second attorney on the case was Schwartz’s father, Spencer, who had been suspended from practice for a year in Illinois in 2001 for misconduct, including allowing his son to practice law before he was licensed, records show.

Mark Schwartz had been reprimanded, too, for sending out ads that exaggerated his professional experience and accomplishments.

In the end, Kazemi said the fight with Aeon was grueling, costing him time and money.

“They had lawyers from Chicago and they came really to destroy,” he said.

Neither Spencer nor Mark Schwartz returned calls or letters seeking comment. In a court document filed in the case, Mark Schwartz wrote, “No time or expenses are billed for unsuccessful or unnecessary motions.”

By 2009, hundreds of families were struggling to pay Aeon. One property owner faced $7,300 in fees for a $1,546 lien. Another faced $6,750 in fees for a $901 lien.

Homeowners complained that their calls to Aeon were not returned, and there was no office to visit in the District. A former attorney for Aeon, Malik Tuma, said the Chicago mail drops were used as a safety precaution.