Steven Croman is a prominent

real estate Real estate is property consisting of land and the buildings on it, along with its natural resources such as crops, minerals or water; immovable property of this nature; an interest vested in this (also) an item of real property, (more general ...

owner,

landlord A landlord is the owner of a house, apartment, condominium, land, or real estate which is rented or leased to an individual or business, who is called a tenant (also a ''lessee'' or ''renter''). When a juristic person is in this position, the ...

and

fraudster In law, fraud is intentional deception to secure unfair or unlawful gain, or to deprive a victim of a legal right. Fraud can violate civil law (e.g., a fraud victim may sue the fraud perpetrator to avoid the fraud or recover monetary compensa ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. In 1990, Croman incorporated the management and brokerage firm ''Croman Real Estate'' (later rebranded to ''9300 Realty'') and quickly grew his business, owning 20 buildings by the end of the decade and 140 buildings by 2016, mostly in Manhattan's East Village. Croman is well-known as a result of numerous tenant harassment and fraud allegations throughout his career in real estate. __FORCETOC__

Allegations

In 1998, Croman was listed as one of '' The Village Voice's'' ''10 Worst Landlords'' and became known for tenant harassment. By 2002, tenants had formed the ''Croman Tenants Coalition,'' and others alleging mistreatment have formed since then such as ''Stop Croman Coalition''. In 2014, New York Attorney General

Eric Schneiderman Eric Tradd Schneiderman (born December 31, 1954) is an American lawyer and politician who served as the 65th Attorney General of New York from 2011 until his resignation in May 2018. Schneiderman, a member of the Democratic Party, spent ten year ...

began investigating ''9300 Realty'' following accusations of tenant harassment. In 2015, the tenants' rights group Cooper Square Committee found Croman to have over $1 million in unpaid Environmental Control Board (ECB) violations. In 2016, Croman was charged with 20 felonies, including grand larceny, falsifying business records, scheming to defraud, offering a false instrument for filing, and criminal tax fraud. In the same year, an independent civil lawsuit in the

New York Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the State of New York is the trial-level court of general jurisdiction in the New York State Unified Court System. (Its Appellate Division is also the highest intermediate appellate court.) It is vested with unlimited civ ...

in Manhattan alleged tenant harassment, intentionally filing baseless lawsuits to pressure tenants out of their apartments, and incentivizing agents and employees to maximize tenant buyouts. In 2017, Croman pled guilty to grand larceny, tax fraud, and filing a false instrument, and was sentenced to 8 months in prison and a $5 million fine. In the same year, the AG and Croman settled the civil lawsuit, forcing Croman to pay $8 million in restitution to tenants and hand over management of many properties to a monitor; at the time, this was the largest-ever monetary settlement with an individual landlord and largest-ever monitorship in a tenant harassment case. In 2018, a new lawsuit alleged that Croman illegally deregulated apartments in an

East Harlem East Harlem, also known as Spanish Harlem or and historically known as Italian Harlem, is a neighborhood of Upper Manhattan, New York City, roughly encompassing the area north of the Upper East Side and bounded by 96th Street to the south, F ...

building, and in 2019 this lawsuit became a class action lawsuit involving more than 100 current and former tenants. Multiple other tenant-related lawsuits have also been filed since Croman's release from prison. In 2021, State Sen.

Brad Hoylman Brad Madison Hoylman (born October 27, 1965) is an American Democratic politician. First elected in 2012, Hoylman represents the 27th District in the New York State Senate, covering much of Lower and Midtown Manhattan in New York City. He is C ...

introduced a bill inspired by Croman that would bar landlords convicted of fraud or violating housing laws from receiving financing from state-chartered banks.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Croman, Steven Landlords Real estate and property developers Living people Year of birth missing (living people)