New York “The Bernie Madoff of Homeowners” He's defaulted on nearly $170 million in loans and faces foreclosure on some 35 whopping Manhattan properties, new court records show.
Stephen Croman, longtime notorious homeowner and convicted fraudster – who visited Rikers Island more than ten years ago – he faces another reckoning, but this time in civil court.
A slew of lawsuits recently filed against Croman in Manhattan Supreme Court allege he defaulted on $168 million in real estate loans.
Croman first took out loans from New York Community Bank, then from Flagstar Bank. after the merger in 2022but last month they were transferred to a new lender, Orange Owner LLC.
They claim the real estate mogul has not made payments on many of his properties for months and owes millions on some buildings.
Croman owned a massive portfolio of 140 buildings when he was arrested in 2016 for filing false documents to obtain tens of millions in illicit bank loans, according to prosecutors at the time.
Dubbed the “Bernie Madoff of landlords” by then-state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, Croman was also accused of using former NYPD officer harassed tenants to leave his apartments, allowing him to raise the rents of unsuspecting New Yorkers.
He pleaded guilty to mortgage fraud in 2017 and spent a year behind bars on Rikers Island.
Last week Crane reported this that Croman was being sued by Orange Owner for allegedly defaulting on loans totaling $71.5 million associated with five different buildings.
But the amount Croman allegedly failed to comply with has grown by nearly $100 million since then, according to 20 lawsuits filed this month.
They include a $12.4 million loan on 209 E. 25th St., a 44-unit building in Kips Bay where rents can reach nearly $5,500 a month, the bank says.
Croman allegedly fell behind on mortgage payments on the property by two months totaling $493,845, more than half of which was due to late fees and other charges, the bank said in an October notice.
The suit also demands that Croman pay off in full the $10.37 million mortgage on the home at 346 E. 18th St. in Gramercy Park, where rents range from $7,500 to nearly $10,000 a month.
Croman allegedly fell behind on an October loan on the property, owing $362,332 with late fees, the documents allege.
Croman's largest default is $21.4 million on a pair of buildings on Christopher Street in the West Village.
The lawsuit alleges that the convicted fraudster stopped making payments in August and was owed $1.2 million at the end of October.
Crain's reported earlier this year that Croman was facing a number of other debt collection lawsuits as well as approximately $45.5 million in defaults.
Lawyers for Croman and Orange Owner did not respond to requests for comment.
