"Regular on New York’s ‘Worst Landlords’ Lists Is Charged", 9 May 2016

For decades, Steven Croman [owner of Croman Real Estate] was a successful landlord in New York City. His companies bought up more than 140 Manhattan apartment buildings, often filled with rent-regulated tenants. And then, methodically, he pushed them to leave, buying them out of their leases for relatively modest sums or, if that did not work, harassing them until they left, tenants said. He was a regular on “worst landlords” lists...

On Monday,...Mr. Croman...turned himself in to the authorities...[and] was charged with 20 felonies... His mortgage broker, Barry Swartz,...was charged with 15 felonies...

The New York State attorney general’s office...[is] seeking to force him to...pay millions of dollars in restitution to tenants and penalties... [The charges] accused Mr. Croman of harassing and coercing “countless working-class and low-income families out of their longtime homes.”... The attorney general’s suit also included Mr. Croman’s director of security, Anthony Falconite... 

Benjamin Brafman, Mr. Croman’s lawyer, emphasized that the criminal allegations were entirely separate from the claims of tenant harassment. “The charges in this case are defensible,” Mr. Brafman said.