Josh Peter

Special for USA TODAY Sports

Probe comes in wake of USA Today Sports investigation into two properties in Los Angeles

Assessor%27s office says probe will determine ownership and then %22see what the next steps will be%22

Records and former tenants say listed owners - Sterling%27s mother and grandmother - are both dead

LOS ANGELES – The Los Angeles County Assessor has launched an investigation into the ownership of Clippers owner Donald Sterling's boyhood home and a property across the street to determine whether back taxes are owed and who must pay them, spokesman Anthony Crump told USA TODAY Sports on Wednesday.

The assessor's probe follows a USA TODAY Sports investigation that revealed the owner of record for Sterling's boyhood home in the Boyle Heights neighborhood is his paternal grandmother, who records show died in 1966, and that Sterling's mother is listed as the owner of record for a multi-family residence across the street, even though former tenants say she died in the 1980s.

"This is an unusual circumstance," Crump said. "Normally, we would find out through another means."

California law requires that the death of a homeowner be reported to the assessor within 150 days of the death to avoid penalties, according to Crump, and the responsibility falls upon the decedent's spouse or partner, executor of a will, administrator of the estate or the trustee of a trust.

The death of a homeowner typically triggers a property tax reassessment that usually results in a tax increase.

Crump said the assessor's office will mail a Change In Ownership Statement, which is supposed to be filed upon death of a homeowner, to the two current owners of record — Sarah Chasa Tokovitz, who is Sterling's grandmother, and Sora Tokowitz, who also went by Sylvia.

The assessor is trying to independently confirm the deaths of the two women, Crump said.

Their address is the same one listed for Sterling's sister, Marilyn Pizante, and is in a building owned by Sterling, records show.

"At this point we are investigating if there's a change in ownership," Crump said. "Once we've made that determination, we can look at other issues and see what the next steps will be."

If the failure to report a death was not willful, back taxes could be recouped eight years from the date the assessor determines a change in ownership took place and reassesses the property. The new owner also could face a fine of up to $20,000. If the failure to report a homeowner's death was willful, the penalties could be "substantially higher," Crump said.

The Los Angeles Treasurer and Tax Collector's Office also is involved in the probe, said David Sommers, director of public affairs for the county.

"The county has been actively looking through our archives through the last several decades to determine what sort of information we have about these particular properties. We're very interested in getting to the bottom of this because we want to not only protect the interests of taxpayers and property owners, but also make sure that the right property taxes are collected based on what they should be," Sommers said.

Current and former tenants told USA TODAY Sports that Sterling's sister identified herself as owner of the properties in the mid-1980s after the death of Sora Tokowitz, who changed her name to Sylvia Tokowitz, according to immigration records. Former tenants said Sylvia Tokowitz, who had been divorced from Sterling's and Pizante's father since 1961, never mentioned she had children.

Maria Vallejo, who said she managed the properties for Pizante for 20 years, said Pizante also represented herself as Sylvia Tokowitz in a 2009 eviction case. Court records show Sylvia Tokowitz listed as the plaintiff in an eviction case that year.

Sterling was seen at the properties in May 2012 after a paint crew that told a tenant it worked for Sterling had painted the residence at 312 North St. Louis Street, according to former tenant Danny Vallejo.

Sterling and his attorneys did not respond to requests for comment Wednesday, nor did Pizante.

Sterling, 80, is worth an estimated $1.9 billion, according to Forbes magazine. He has owned the Clippers since 1981, but was banned from the league for life on April 29 by NBA Commissioner Adam Silver after racist comments Sterling made in a recorded conversation with a female friend were leaked to the TMZ website. Silver also fined Sterling $2.5 million and said the league would force a sale of the team, but Sterling's attorney told the league in a letter last week that his client will not pay and does not warrant punishment for his comments.

The NBA set a hearing date of June 3, after which Sterling's ownership will be terminated if three-quarters of the league's owners support Silver's decision.

Sterling's boyhood home and the property across the street have been assessed based on 1975 property values — the result of Proposition 13, a law that California voters passed in 1978 that limits annual reassessments for current owners to no more than 2 percent of a home's value.

In 2013, the property tax for Sterling's boyhood home was $603.66; the tax for the property listed in his mother's name was $1,545.11. Based on their current estimated market value, the combined annual taxes would be at least $13,000.

Reassessment would be based on property values at the time of the homeowner's death, Crump said, but there are exceptions.

A 1986 law exempts from reassessment property children inherit from their parents. An exemption that took effect in 1996 is available for grandchildren who inherit property from their grandparents. No claim for those exemptions was filed for the properties in question, Crump said.

Every year, money orders have been mailed to the Treasurer and Tax Collector's office to pay the property taxes for Sterling's boyhood home and the property across the street. The money orders — copies of which date back to 2001 — bear the name of both women and their listed address is for an apartment building owned by Sterling.

On Wednesday, the the U.S. Postal Service declined to comment. When presented with facts from the USA TODAY Sports investigation, Lori J. McCallister, postal inspector/program manager of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service responded by email: "It is a crime to submit a change of address for any person without their consent. From the questions you provided, it appears the family has done this in order to keep their tax payments lower. I assume this related to state taxes only. In that instance, because of the use of the mail, we would work jointly with the state taxation bureau to investigate this type of crime.

"When a money order is issued by USPS, it is the responsibility of the recipient to fill-out the payee and payer sections. If the sections contain fraudulent information, the Inspection Service would investigate this in coordination with the California Tax Bureau.''

The Los Angeles County District Attorney's office has declined to comment.