The precise charges against Steven Croman weren’t yet clear, but the state attorney general’s office is expected to file a Manhattan civil suit today accusing him of unlawfully deploying a former NYPD cop to harass and coerce rent-stabilized tenants into vacating their apartments, said a source close to the investigation.
State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman is expected to announce the charges against Croman this afternoon.
Updated 10:45 a.m.
The Daily News reports that Croman has been arrested.
And the Daily News was first with the report.
EXCLUSIVE: Landlord arrested after threatening, trying to force out rent-stabilized tenants https://t.co/HvT4xg0fUi pic.twitter.com/EWFCYRHK4y
— New York Daily News (@NYDailyNews) May 9, 2016
Updated 12:45
Here is The New York Times with the details:
Mr. Croman’s business came to embody in many ways how rent regulations have eroded in the city, putting housing out of reach for more and more New Yorkers. He was able to deregulate most of his rent-stabilized apartments within just a few years of buying the buildings, enabling him to reap much higher rents.
On Monday morning, though, his fortunes took a different turn. Mr. Croman, 49, turned himself in around 7 a.m. at the First Precinct in Lower Manhattan. He was charged with 20 felonies, including grand larceny, criminal tax fraud, falsifying business records and a scheme to defraud, relating to accusations he inflated his rental income to secure more than $45 million in bank loans. He faces up to 25 years in prison. His mortgage broker, Barry Swartz, 53, was charged with 15 felonies.
The New York State attorney general’s office, which investigated Mr. Croman for almost two years, also sued Mr. Croman on Monday, seeking to force him to give up his real-estate business and pay millions of dollars in restitution to tenants and penalties.
Updated 3:45
The folks at Bruno Pizza on East 13th Street between Second Avenue and Third Avenue have a Croman-related special tonight...
Previously on EV Grieve:
Report: Steve Croman facing another lawsuit from East 8th Street residents
Report: East 8th Street residents sue landlord Steve Croman, allege intimidation, harassment
Watch a lot of people speak out against Steve Croman and 9300 Realty
Report: State Attorney General launches Steve Croman investigation
Tenant advocacy group names Icon Realty and Steven Croman among NYC's worst landlords
25 comments:
YAAASSSSS
Gotta love The Post and the repeated mentions of the kids uber harrassment including the headline LOL. Hey that's immaterial! But funny nonetheless.
About time. Hoping to see Icon, Toledano, Kushner et al. arrested soon.
It's about friggin' time. If one of your neighbors did to you what Croman does to his tenants, your neighbor would have been in jail by now. This kind of unlawful harassment has been ignored by the City and State for too long. Owning a property does not give you the right to harass anyone or to abuse people's rights.
What a difference having the right attorney general makes. Thanks to Eric Schniederman we finally have an Attorney General who is not in the pockets of the real estate industry, or worse, like former AG and Governor Elliot Spitzer who's family controls billions in real estate, and whose billionaire real estate mogul father allegedly illegally financed his election to the tune of $5 million. It's not surprising that Spitzer always looked the other way at this kind of abuse by landlords while chasing after headline grabbing white collar criminals and prosititutoin cases. And look how that worked out.
Now that the authorities are going after Croman and Toledano at the same time, I'm looking forward to Mr Ivanka Trump -- aka Jared Kushner -- getting the scrutiny for being a lousy landlord that he deserves. Having racist xenophobe Donald Trump as his father-in-law won't help him now. Trump may have own the NY primary, but he lost the vote in Manhattan, where he lives, to John Kasich.
This system of crony capitalism has been broken for far too long. It's time to fix it.
Wow. It's about time. There seems to be some ambiguity on whether these charges are civil or criminal. If they are anything but criminal, it's meaningless and a waste of time and money.
Falconite has been violating the restraining order he received from day 1 and Croman has been criminally harassing tenants since he started in real estate. It's time to throw both of these bastards in jail, along with all officers at his companies.
Hope Croman gets all that's coming to him. He bought & emptied a building on my block, and now the "renovated" apartments there are filled with entitled people who are in their 7th year of college, so to speak. Transients with no commitment to anything but partying, and no respect for anyone else living within earshot of them.
Croman, Icon, Shaoul, Kushner (Trump's son-in-law), Toldeano - IMO, they all deserve whatever the law can do to them.
Some infamous EV landlords are more stupid/thuggish than others, which helps the less scummy and loud ones avoid trouble. But this should be a wakeup call to ALL of them to stop harassing RC/RS tenants and playing games with their leases. I'll never understand why these fools want to fuck with innocent people rather than just pay up the good money we all know they have to get them to leave.
@ Giovanni
+ about 8 million!
Yeah and the real estate slimes also front and control the arts, arts and cultural affairs, preservation, TSP, supposed anarchists and the long gone counter culture, manipulative awards ceremonies, the shit parade, upscale lounges and and anything that can demolish, and any ignorant submissive idiot who believes what they and their friends say over what the people say and what is obviously really happening.
They pitch the real activism taking place as puritinasm and the idiots believe them because they are cowards who don't want to stray to far from the power in numbars. Brainwashed.
This just in fron the NYT. Charged with 20 Felonies!
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/10/nyregion/steven-croman-regular-on-new-yorks-worst-landlords-lists-is-charged.html
Yes! Now, let's get a conviction!
Well said Gio - Eric Schniederman has been a rock star, let's get him on the mayoral ticket. Not so related to this, I like his stance against daily sports fantasy gambling too. Naturally, the Observer blasted him for it...
Next up: Trump's son-in-law slum lord Jared Kushner who used the exact same tactics via Ben Shaoul and after he took over. Watch out slum lords.
chortle chortle chortle chortle chortle chortle chortle
Good news.
Wonder is this will stop the crowd who wants to open restaurants and bars to capitalize all the lux housing being built from renting all his vacant commercial spaces?
The issue of prospective liquor license applicants renting spaces from terrible landlords came up in two cases at the last CB 3 meeting. One in the LES owned by Sammy Mahfar and the other on St. Mark's Place owned by Jonis, the building that has no gas, where Ninos among other things used to be. In both cases residents explained to the applicants how bad the landlords were, but it both cases they went forward anyway. I guess if your dream is to own a bar and restaurant in the EV/LES then you will do whatever it takes, even if that is dealing with the likes of Shaoul, Icon, Crowman, Tower, Jonis, Mahfar etc.
Let's hope that changes if this guy gets convicted.
Hooooooraaaaay! One down, many more to go...
However, the Observer owning-Kushner is smart. He's probably been a little more careful about the way that he operates his EV real estate empire and, politically, filing charges against him would be a much more delicate matter for the AG's office. Schneiderman has so far just gone after the low hanging fruit. We'll see if he dares to go after someone as connected as Kushner.
Falsifying loan applications is a big deal. I believe Lester Freemon called this "The Head Shot." Shiiiiiitttt
Hey Scumbag Croman - three words for ya, they are long overdue....ROT. IN. HELL!!!
I've been waiting to celebrate this moment for a very long time. Even before I found out that his dog had a bigger bedroom than my apartment. It's time for a PARTY !!!!
What about that ex-detective thug he employs to intimidate long-time tenants?
True victory will come when he does time, but short of that I would like to congratulate the tenant activists who took him on. We owe them a debt of gratitude if this does send a message to other EV/LES landlords. It takes a great deal of courage, time, research etc to be an activist of any kind in our hood, especially when people paint you as some sort of loser who doesn't have a life, doesn't want progress, doesn't like young people etc. It is especially courageous when the person you are advocating against owns the place you call home and threatens you everyday, to the point you fear for not only for your home, but for your safety and those of your family and your pets. It takes a special breed to stick it out when everyone tells you to just give-up and accept the reality that the EV/LES or all of NYC for that matter is dead. While of course I am rooting for this evil(I won't even call him a human-being) to go to jail, I am rooting more that this gives the tenants who stood up to him some peace and security in the place they have probably long called home. Thanks to you and congratulations.
Go Schneiderman!
This is what greed buys. I hope some justice can come for those who lost their homes to this creep. I'm also curious to know what really happened to the Stage.
Kushner, Toledano, Shaoul. Line 'em up and knock 'em down. Welcome to the party boys!
This was long overdue. You gotta wonder how Samy Mahfar, Ben Shaoul, and Jared Kushner slept last night?
Post a Comment