NEW YORK CITY—New York City landlord Steven Croman, who owns more than 140 apartment buildings, was taken into custody on Tuesday to serve one year of jail time at Rikers Island. On Tuesday, he had pleaded guilty to grand larceny, tax fraud and falsifying documents. As part of the plea, Croman agreed to pay a $5 million tax settlement to the state, $3 million of which he paid last month.

Croman's defense attorney Benjamin Brafman tells GlobeSt.com, “The sentence of one year was an agreed upon sentence consistent with the terms of a plea agreement we signed many months ago.”

Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman's investigation found that between 2012 and 2014, Croman submitted false documents for rent-stabilized apartments and commercial spaces. He inflated the annual rental income of these buildings to obtain more than $45 million in mortgage refinancing under false pretenses.

Recommended For You

Want to continue reading?
Become a Free ALM Digital Reader.

Once you are an ALM Digital Member, you’ll receive:

  • Breaking commercial real estate news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
  • Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
  • Critical coverage of the property casualty insurance and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, PropertyCasualty360 and ThinkAdvisor
NOT FOR REPRINT

© 2025 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to asset-and-logo-licensing@alm.com. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.

Betsy Kim

Betsy Kim was the bureau chief, East Coast, and New York City reporter for Real Estate Forum and GlobeSt.com. As a lawyer and journalist, Betsy has worked as the director of editorial and content for LexisNexis Lawyers.com, a TV/multi-media journalist for NBC and CBS affiliated TV stations in the Midwest, and an associate producer at Court TV.

Betsy Kim

Betsy Kim was the bureau chief, East Coast, and New York City reporter for Real Estate Forum and GlobeSt.com. As a lawyer and journalist, Betsy has worked as the director of editorial and content for LexisNexis Lawyers.com, a TV/multi-media journalist for NBC and CBS affiliated TV stations in the Midwest, and an associate producer at Court TV.