All language subtitles for American Greed s12e16 Just a Dollar and a Scheme

In this episode of American Greed,
buying a winning lottery ticket is a

come true.

I'm here!

We have the winning ticket right here!
People are fascinated by this case

because everyone's fascinated by the
lottery.

When the winner of a $16 million jackpot
refuses to identify himself, officials

suspect a rigged game.

Ding, ding, ding. Something is screwing.
It turns into the biggest lottery scam

in American history.

He figured out a way.

To keep winning the lottery.

And later, New York City's housing
crisis hits home.

Tenants are not seen as human beings.

They're standing in the way of dollar
signs.

The case of the landlord from hell.

He cared nothing about making 23
families homeless.

Stephen Croman rules a Manhattan real
estate empire. More money, more

He wanted it on. But prosecutors have
other accommodations in mind for him.

It's Christmastime 2010 in Des Moines,
and Iowans are feeling the holiday

The hot lotto jackpot keeps growing.

Blowing past the $15 million mark, it's
one of the Hawkeye State's most popular

lottery games.

Winning numbers right here. And part of
an $80 billion a year industry.

Hot Lotto is a game that you pick five
different white balls and one hot ball.

Winning tickets.

It was a big, big jackpot at the time.
So people were getting excited.

Big, big, big, big, big winner.

And as jackpots rise, more and more
people jump in.

Anyone able to choose the correct six
numbers will have a very merry

On December 23rd, a heavyset man in a
black jacket, cap, and hoodie walks up

the counter of a quick -trip convenience
store off Interstate 80.

You can't quite see his face. You can
hear his voice a little bit.

Hello. Can I wear your hat, dog?

Yes, sir.

373.

This man buys the ticket, goes out to
his SUV, drives away.

A few days later, September 29, 2010,
it's announced that the winning lotto

ticket was bought at this quick trip gas
station in Des Moines, Iowa.

The prize is worth $16 .5 million.

There's a buzz in the crisp winter air.

Somewhere out there is a heck of a
ticket worth $16 .5 million.

Who's the lucky winner?

People love to talk about the lottery.
They love to play the lottery. It's just

that dream chance that you could achieve
the American dream without having to do

anything.

Days pass as lottery officials wait for
someone to come forward and wait.

Someone has the ticket.

The Iowa Lottery wants to give away the
money.

We want someone to commence. We can show
you the money, give you the money.

Most people wait a little while to claim
their jackpot because they want to talk

to a financial advisor and talk to a
lawyer. But then this one really took a

crazy turn because people didn't show up
after 30 days, didn't show up after six

months.

Lottery officials remind the public
there's a one -year deadline to claim

prize.

The clock ticks down until...

It was only an hour and a half left
when, in fact, we had two lawyers walk

and said, ladies and gentlemen, we have
the winning ticket.

Yeah, this little baby we've been
looking for for a while.

I'll hold it for a second. We're very
excited to have this ticket.

The lawyers are hired to represent a
trust based in Belize, a Central

tax haven.

Ding, ding, ding.

Something is screwy. So we said we're
not going to pay unless we know who

it. Tell us who bought the ticket.

The mystery client is unwilling to
identify himself.

That's fine in other states where
winners can claim jackpots anonymously.

But it doesn't fly in Iowa.

Ladies and gentlemen, the hot lotto
jackpot claim has been withdrawn.

This man's anonymity was worth $16 .5
million for him. They didn't know

that a crime had been committed. They
just knew that there was a puzzle.

No one ever claims the prize.

This puzzle spurs the Iowa Attorney
General and Division of Criminal

Investigation to launch a probe.

It stalls for three years until an
ambitious prosecutor named Rob Sand gets

case.

My boss just handed me the file and said
something like happy birthday. Everyone

in the office knew that this was
something that was basically a pain.

Sand specializes in financial crimes.

I think of them as crimes against
gratitude, and they're crimes of greed.

His brothers -in -law call him Baby
Jesus because, one, he's a bit of a

and two, he can't grow a beard.

Just like baby Jesus.

Sand considers one piece of evidence his
best shot at solving the case.

Surveillance video of the winning ticket
buyer.

We were going to have to release that
video and provide people with a way to

submit tips.

Because if we had held that back, you
never know who might have been out

Investigators post an online news
release with a link to the 74 -second

appealing to the public for help.

The video itself is actually very
blurry.

You really can't make out who that man
might be.

And yet they receive a stunning series
of tips within days.

It's not the face or the look of the man
that rings the bell. It's his voice.

He has this very distinct Texas twang
that could only belong to

one man. His name's Eddie Tipton.

51 -year -old Eddie Tipton is one of the
most respected people in the lottery

business. He works at the multi -state
lottery association called Muscle and is

prominently featured on its website.

Muscle supervises day -to -day functions
of lotteries in three dozen states and

territories, including Iowa.

He was a computer expert.

He would do their security audits. He
would visit other lotteries and help

install machines and help make sure that
everything was clear.

In a television interview just months
earlier, Tipton stresses the importance

password security.

Security's always been an add -on, and
when something happens, it's too late.

Cat's out of the bag.

Tipton is popular with work colleagues
like Jason Maher.

He was a very happy, large, boisterous
guy. You'd always know he was in the

room.

He had a very distinct voice.

He'd walk into my office, put his hand
down on my shoulder and say, Hey, man, I

just want you to know I'm your friend.

You know, with his little southern
accent.

Tipton grew up in a small Texas town
near Houston called Flatonia.

He shows a flair for computers early on.

His brothers and sister were playing
outside on the family farm growing up.

Eddie would be inside fiddling with
computers. We went to school for

technology at the University of Houston.

Tipton builds a solid reputation at
Muscle, earning a promotion to

security director.

It comes with a six -figure salary, but
Tipton isn't a big spender.

Eddie was never a glamorous person. He
had a truck. He had 300 ,000 miles on

Frugal kind of guy.

When Tipton builds a 5 ,000 -square
-foot house outside Des Moines, it's

with his own hands.

He was always trying to get people to
come visit his house.

He lived out in the middle of a field in
a huge castle, just massive, being it

was a hotel.

Though close to his extended clan back
in Texas, the divorcee yearns for a

family of his own.

He was a very lonely person.

Eddie always wanted a family.

He built this whole thing.

from scratch, for a family.

And I told him he should get the family
first, then the massive house.

Tipton's dream must wait.

Authorities arrest him in January 2015
for cheating the very industry he's

entrusted with protecting.

Next on American Greed, Eddie Tipton
stands trial, but what else is he

hiding?

You've got a money tree in your
backyard.

You can't help but keep looking at it.

Authorities suspect Eddie Tipton of
rigging an Iowa lottery worth $16

The 52 -year -old stands trial in July
2015 on two counts of felony fraud.

I thought that I had a good case. I also
thought and knew that a jury might

disagree. To win the case, Prosecutor
Rob Sand must convince jurors it's

buying the winning lottery ticket in
this surveillance video.

Tipton's defense attorney, Dean Stowers,
argues it can't be his client for a

very simple reason.

Eddie Tipton didn't have a beard at that
time, and we had photographs and other

evidence to support that.

Tipton's brother, Tommy, testifies for
Eddie.

Prosecutors called Eddie's friend, Jason
Maher, as a witness.

There's no other guy that could possibly
have this guy's voice, have the same

height, have the same build, be the same
size as Eddie.

The case boils down to whether Eddie
tampered with equipment to rig the game.

The IOMA lottery uses computers equipped
with random number generators to pick

winning numbers.

The machines are sealed and operated a
few miles away at Muscle.

the multi -state lottery association
where Tipton worked for a decade.

Drawing these numbers is like launching
a nuclear missile.

They have a small room.

That room is under constant camera
surveillance.

When they go in, there's two computers,
both in locked glass boxes.

Sand theorizes Eddie snuck into the room
where they draw the numbers and

installed malicious software with a
flash drive.

It allowed him to predict the winning
numbers.

The computers that had drawn the winning
numbers had been wiped.

There was nothing left to go off of on
them.

What I was doing was building a case off
of circumstantial evidence that he had

done it.

Defense attorney Stowers attacks the
state's theory, likening it to a

movie gone bad.

He calls it the Mission Impossible
theory, where Eddie's sneaking into the

room being Tom Cruise and trying to
stick this into the computer and take

the computer.

Stowers can't hide his contempt for the
prosecution's case.

This case is like Keystone Cops being in
charge of an investigation, and

sometimes the Keystone Cops...

get their man anyway.

How is it that he won the biggest random
number generated game that muscle runs

at one of its record jackpot levels?

There's too much going on for people to
think that this was just random luck.

The jury find the defendant, Edward
Tippin, guilty of fraud as alleged in

one. The judge sentences Eddie to 10
years in prison.

He's free pending appeal when news
reporters catch up to him for his

Shock.

That's it.

It seemed the hot lotto scandal was
nearing an end.

But it was only the beginning.

Trial's done.

They find out there's all these other
tickets. And I think that's where things

really get interesting.

Sand has barely boxed up his trial
exhibits when he gets a phone call that

changes everything.

That phone call was a man from Texas who
asked me in a deep Texas drawl, did you

all know that Eddie Tipton's brother won
the lottery?

Maybe about ten years ago, out west
somewhere.

It turns out Eddie's brother, Tommy, a
former deputy sheriff and justice of the

peace from Texas, had won the Colorado
lottery in 2005.

He claimed more than a half million
dollars in prize money through an

acquaintance.

Big hat, big belt buckle, loud voice.

I think as they say in Texas, all hat,
no cattle.

Sand's team widens the investigation.

And there were always questions in the
back of our head as to whether or not

there were others out there.

Reason being, you almost never catch a
financial brook.

the first time they're committing their
act. They compile a spreadsheet of 45

,000 winning lottery tickets spread
across the country and comb through

and LinkedIn pages for any tie to Eddie
Tipton.

Rob Sand and his investigators start
making all the connections.

There's a connection to a ticket in
Colorado back in 2005.

There's a connection to a ticket in
Oklahoma, in Kansas, in Wisconsin.

The winner of the Wisconsin Megabucks in
December 2007 just happens to be

Eddie's close friend, Robert Rhodes.

Robert Rhodes was an incredibly
successful businessman in Texas.

He had really made a name for himself.

Robert Rhodes was also the man.

When Eddie Tipton had a $16 .5 million
ticket in Iowa, Eddie Tipton felt that

could trust him and pass him this ticket
and say, let's figure out a way to

claim this.

Investigators uncover a conspiracy
stretching across America's heartland.

So after Rob Sand, fellow investigators
look over all these possible winning

tickets. What they find, six winning
tickets in five different states over

course of ten years.

But how exactly does the gamer gain the
system?

We are going to need to know exactly
what happened from Eddie himself.

Next on American Greed, will Eddie
Tipton finally come clean?

Mr. Tipton, what do you have to tell me,
sir?

Iowa authorities suspect Eddie Tipton,
his brother Tommy, and close friend

Robert Rhodes of running the biggest
lottery scam in American history. The

alleged conspiracy spanned a decade,
five states, and $25 million in

jackpots. It was the way that it
stretched across multiple states. It was

way that it stretched so far back in
time. Everything about it was unique.

Now investigators are closer than ever
to solving the mystery of how Eddie

pulled it off. We knew that whatever
Eddie had done had something to do with

draw dates.

The answer is hidden inside computers
Eddie programmed at the Multistate

Association.

Muscle oversees games in three dozen
states and territories.

A lot of what he would do would be
getting these new lottery machines in

and sending them out to states. And that
means Eddie essentially has the keys to

the kingdom.

Random number generators used in the
Iowa lottery back in 2010 are of little

help to investigators.

The computers that had drawn the winning
numbers had been wiped to Department of

Defense standards three times.

There was nothing left to go off of on
them.

But Wisconsin, where Robert Rhodes had
won a $2 million megabucks in 2007, is

another story.

Investigators recover computers from
storage that Eddie had personally

years earlier.

Forensic analysis reveals a tiny code
buried in the software.

This was a big mystery that had gone on
for over a decade, and that was the

smoking gun.

The amazing part of this is this isn't
some genius computer code.

easily available on the internet. He was
able to find this piece of code, insert

it into these machines, and bypass the
randomness of the lottery to make it

predictable. The code allows Eddie to
predict winning numbers on three days of

the year.

May 27th, November 23rd, and December
29th.

If you could have the time machine to go
into the future two weeks, Wouldn't

that be the first thing you'd do, is
you'd find out what the winning lottery

ticket is, come back to now, and then
buy it? That's what Eddie had. He made a

time machine.

Eddie brings his brother Tommy and good
friend Robert Rhodes along for the ride.

Eddie generates a list of numbers for
them to play.

They use acquaintances to claim the
prize money.

It worked.

And it might have kept working if Eddie
had quit while he was ahead.

If you've got a money tree in your
backyard, you can't help but keep

it. When the Iowa lottery rises to $16
million in 2010,

Eddie can't resist buying the ticket
himself.

Unfortunately for him, he picks one of
the only quick trips in the state of

equipped to record both video and audio.

With prosecutors closing in on the
Tipton brothers and their Texas buddy

Rhodes, Eddie can feel his luck finally
running out.

He was down at his friend Robert Rhodes'
house down in Texas, sitting in the

backyard, and he says, am I paying for
my sins?

Am I paying for my sins here? This was
really weighing on Eddie.

What Eddie Tipton doesn't realize is
that Rhodes is about to flip and turn

state's evidence.

He was willing to testify against Eddie
and Tommy, and he provided us with very

good evidence.

Eddie's defense attorney negotiates a
plea agreement.

The deal means Eddie's brother must
plead guilty to theft, but will only

75 days in jail.

Eddie was the older brother of Tommy,
and Tommy had children, and that was a

great concern to Eddie that Tommy not be
separated from his children.

Eddie Tipton pleads guilty in June 2017
to ongoing criminal conduct.

At the time at Earthcode, I wasn't sure.
It was more of a trying to see if I

could do it. He probably did want to see
if he could do it.

Just knowing Eddie, maybe he thought
that he'd be at a different place in his

life than he was.

And he's like, how can I get in a place
where I'm happier?

Even if he wants to tell himself he was
just doing it one step at a time and it

wasn't about the money.

There's no denying that in the back of
his head, there were dollar signs.

Eddie Tipton addresses the court at his
sentencing hearing in August 2017,

nearly seven years after buying the
lottery ticket that sealed his fate.

Mr. Tipton, what do you have to tell me,
sir?

Well, I certainly regret my actions.

It's difficult, even saying that.

With all the people that I know behind
me that I hurt.

And I regret it. I'm sorry. The judge
sentences Eddie to the maximum 25 years

prison. He and his brother must also pay
back more than $2 million in

restitution. I think he has gone through
a fair amount of depression over the

whole situation.

Eddie Tipton is sent to serve time at
the Clarinda Correctional Facility in

southern Iowa.

He'll likely be paroled within seven
years.

Eddie and Tommy Tipton declined requests
to speak with American Greed.

Robert Rhodes pleaded guilty to fraud
and was sentenced to two years probation

and six months of house arrest.

He did not respond to repeated requests
for comment.

The Iowa lottery has moved past the
scandal. Business is better than ever.

Though the state no longer offers hot
lotto games.

I absolutely believe Eddie Tipton would
still be doing this today if we would

have allowed anonymous winners. I think
there's this fascination to the anti

-hero type character. As much as what he
did was evil or full of greed, you

almost have to tip your hat to the guy.
He figured out a way.

to keep winning the lottery. For
prosecutor Rob Sand, the Iowa lottery

boils down to a simple moral straight
from the Bible.

Thou shall not steal.

There's still a few rules that no matter
what should apply to everybody.

Next on American Greed, it's the case of
the landlord from hell.

Tenants are not seen as human beings.

They're standing in the way of dollar
science.

New York, a densely packed city of 8 .5
million people, is a world capital of

finance, culture, and cuisine.

While many here take a stab at the
American dream, few can find an

place to live.

New York has been in a housing crisis
for more than 100 years.

All these people coming here, all these
folks wanting to live here.

How do you have enough affordable
housing?

The government's answer is rent
regulation.

For regulated apartments, rents can only
increase a certain percentage every

year, if at all, keeping apartments
lower than the market rate.

I am only here because of the rent
regulations.

If I didn't have it, I wouldn't be able
to stay here.

But unfortunately, what we've also seen
is that a lot of landlords have abused

the process.

Tenants who live in rent -stabilized
apartments have really paid the price.

Among the city's most notorious
landlords is a wheeler dealer named

Croman. Steve Croman, he was always,
like, at the top of all the bad landlord

lists. And he, I think, more than
anybody, became, like, the face of what

happening in the city.

Croman has come a long way from his
South Orange, New Jersey roots.

Real estate runs in his blood.

I believe his father was in real estate,
and so it was kind of the family

business. And he struck out on his own
and wanted to build his own real estate

empire. In 1992, the 26 -year -old buys
his first multifamily apartment building

north of the Little Italy neighborhood,
221 Mott Street.

Tenement buildings that are often more
than 100 years old, these are the sort

buildings that are very attractive to a
landlord like Mr. Croman.

Where others see dreck, Croman sees
gold, and the young man drafts a cunning

playbook. Step one, persuade rent
-regulated tenants to sell their lease

few thousand dollars or a couple of
months of free rent.

It's called unlocking value. And how you
unlock value is you push out who's ever

living there.

Automatically, you are allowed to add 20
% to the rent just by getting somebody

to leave.

But for folks like Croman, that's not
enough. What you can do is renovations.

You then are allowed to increase the
rent even more.

Just a year after Croman buys 221 Mott
Street, New York amends a law that for

him is like manna from heaven.

It places an upper limit on rent
stabilization, stipulating that once an

apartment crosses a certain threshold,
currently about $2 ,700 a month,

you lose another one of these apartments
to the free market.

And suddenly, Krohman can rent an
apartment for as much as he wants.

And I think he was one of the first
landlords to see the combination of all

those things and what you could do with
a building.

So the building now has 18 units, and
only two of them are regulated units.

221 Mott Street is just the start.

Over the next 25 years, Crowman expands
into Chinatown, the Lower East Side, the

East and West Villages, Hell's Kitchen,
and Harlem.

Building a real estate empire of more
than 150 properties, from the East River

to the Hudson.

We have some estimates that he was worth
upwards of $600 or $700 million.

The Jersey boy treats his family to a
lifestyle befitting his wealth.

He converts a six -story multifamily
apartment building on the Upper East

into one of Manhattan's largest single
-family homes.

There is an interesting provision in the
law in New York that allows for an

owner to evict rent -stabilized tenants.

from a property if they intend to use
the unit for themselves.

Croman went about moving each one of the
tenants out, some of whom were rent

-stabilized and had lived there for
years.

Croman eventually settles with most
tenants for an undisclosed sum.

But his actions wrinkle others,
especially when they later find social

photos posted by Croman's close friends.

They depict lavish parties in the city
and the Hampton.

Parties like Studio 54 parties.

We call them bacchanals.

They're not parties.

They're just so decadent.

Life is good for Stephen Croman.

But for tenants like Cynthia Chaffee,
it's another story.

She's an artist who moved into this rent
-regulated apartment near the Gramercy

Park neighborhood in 1978.

I love the apartment because it was
spacious.

I like looking at the sky, and I love
looking at the Empire State Building.

When Croman buys her building two
decades later, Chaffee says renovations

almost immediately.

We are living in a combat zone.

It's horrible.

I got so sick from his renovations.

This whole place flooded with dust. It
was everywhere.

I could still taste that dust in my
mouth.

Chaffee alleges Croman sometimes fails
to maintain basic services and make

repairs. We didn't have electric for two
months one year, and then another year

we didn't have gas for a few months.

Then we've had water pouring through the
bathroom ceilings.

Chaffee says Croman won't acknowledge
her rent payments and drags her to

court for unpaid fees.

Chaffee and other tenants claim
frivolous lawsuits are just another form

harassment to wear them down and accept
a buyout.

What's wrong with this picture?

We're all paying for Croman to get rich.

Because what happens is he uses the
courts and uses the harassment to empty

these apartments out, and he is very
successful at it.

Croman denies the allegations in court
filings and claims to strictly follow

government building regulations.

He argues it's tenants like Chaffee who
are the problem, standing in the way of

badly needed repairs to century -old
structures.

Croman declined American Greed's
repeated requests for an interview.

Manhattan has many renters who say
they're fed up with Croman's tactic.

Robert Penter claims to have experienced
similar harassment in his apartment

building. The Milwaukee native was
thrilled to find a rent -regulated

in the East Village neighborhood in
1982.

I loved the apartment when I moved in
here.

At that time, the neighborhood was, you
know, not so nice.

The neighborhood gentrifies over the
next three decades.

And then in 2012, Stephen Croman swoops
in.

Steve Croman bought our building, I
think, a month before Superstorm Sandy

I always like to say that Croman's
tenure of ownership here rivaled Sandy's

ferocity and destruction.

Penter says it starts innocently enough
with renovations to the apartment above

him. Then his closet collapses and dust
pours in.

I had to just grab my coat and run out
of the apartment because I could not

breathe. Everything was contaminated,
the entire apartment, with dust.

Pinter says workmen eventually placed
plastic wrapping over the doors of

apartments being renovated, but he
believes his health was damaged.

I ended up getting a cough.

I went to the pulmonologist, and I was
diagnosed with bronchial asthma.

While Petter and other tenants believe
renovations are aimed at making their

lives miserable,

Croman's office claims it's doing
everything by the book to protect

Petter says most of his neighbors caved,
accepting buyouts ranging from $5 ,000

to $10 ,000.

It's almost like he was trying to soften
them up and make people crazy enough

that they would just want to leave.

I didn't leave during that horrendous
period simply because this is my home.

Next on American Greed, the office of
the New York State Attorney General

on the mega landlord.

More money, more property, more cars.

He wanted on. But can anyone stop
Croman?

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We'll be right back.

New York landlord Stephen Croman takes
in an estimated $63 million in 2014

with a portfolio of rental buildings
stretching from one tip of Manhattan to

other.

His personal properties include a 19
,000 -square -foot mansion on the Upper

East Side reported to include two
swimming pools, And a Hamptons getaway

for parties so extravagant they fill up
gossip columns and social media posts.

Meanwhile, his work crews are in the
city causing toxic destruction in all of

these buildings, causing suffering, and
he's out there enjoying himself.

The 48 -year -old Jersey boy seems to
have the world at his fingertips and

no signs of slowing down.

Mr. Croman is an intense man.

He is very focused on all aspects of his
business.

We've been told he opens every piece of
mail.

Croman is a perennial on lists of New
York's worst landlords.

So it's like dealing with the Wild West
out there, and these landlords are

getting away with doing whatever they
want to do.

Chaffee and other tenants form a
grassroots protest group.

Protests fall on deaf ears for decades
until tenants bring their complaints to

the office of the New York State
Attorney General.

A group of tenants asked to come in and
meet with us. The things that they

described were pretty disturbing.

So disturbing that Jessica Addy opens a
civil investigation into the

allegations.

In witness statements, former employees
describe Croman pacing his spacious

Broadway office.

They say he offers up to five figure
bonuses for persuading tenants to take a

buyout. He would be yelling things like
buyouts, buyouts, like some sort of

cartoon villain.

Tenants are not seen as human beings.

They're standing in the way of dollar
signs.

We just have to get this thing out of
the way and then we can make all the

that we want to make.

Though Croman is more than willing to
confront tenants face -to -face, he

unleashes a brawny private investigator
and former New York City cop named

Anthony Falconite.

Stephen Croman referred to Anthony
Falconite as his secret weapon.

Anthony Falconite was the person who
would go to the tenants and persuade,

coerce, or threaten them into taking
buyouts.

Tenants tell prosecutors that Falconite
bullies his way into units under false

pretenses.

I heard him described as an architect, a
city inspector.

He would gain entry into their
apartments.

Once inside, Falconite hunts for any
impropriety that may force a resident

a buyout or an eviction.

He'd photograph their bathrooms, their
pill bottles, their mail.

He would take pictures of them sitting
there in their pajamas or partially

dressed. They often said he made them
feel like criminals in their own home.

It's very intimidating having a stranger
in strong -arming you to leave your

home. You're talking about shelter.

You're talking about somebody's home.

Falk and I did not respond to repeated
requests for comment.

While Addie carefully builds a civil
case against Croman...

She discovers behavior that triggers a
criminal investigation.

Her colleague, Travis Hill, takes a
deeper dive into Croman's finances.

He discovers Croman has inflated his
rent rolls to secure loans of more than

million. He definitely knew the rules,
and if he couldn't get what he wanted

through legal means, he would use fraud
and deception to go about getting more

money.

On May 9th, 2016, the office of the New
York State Attorney General indicts

Stephen Croman on 20 felonies.

They range from grand larceny to tax
fraud.

The scope of this enterprise was really
unlike any other that we've seen in New

York.

Prosecutors also hit Croman with a civil
lawsuit, suing him for forcing tenants

out of their rent -regulated units.

The charges are a long time coming for
Croman's tenants.

The day that he was arrested, we were
relieved.

It was the first time we were beginning
to feel safe.

Croman pleads not guilty. If convicted,
he faces up to 25 years in prison.

Next on American Greed.

Will the charges stick against Croman? I
think he was shocked that he was

actually charged with anything because
he had done things with impunity for so

long.

In May 2016, the Office of the New York
State Attorney General charges Stephen

Croman with 20 felonies, including tax
and mortgage fraud.

Prosecutors also sue him for harassing
and forcing rent -stabilized tenants

their homes.

You could tell by the lawyers he hired
to represent him that he took the

seriously. But I don't think that he
thought that he would end up doing any

time. Croman's team of high -priced
defense attorneys include Benjamin

Criminal cases have nothing whatsoever
to do with the tenant harassment

They're very good advocates.

They're very well experienced.

They understand the law. They understand
the issues.

And they advocate it well for their
client.

Croman and the government spend the next
year negotiating a plea agreement.

Though Croman could face up to 25 years
in prison, Prosecutor Hill feels the

real estate mogul is eerily focused on
the bottom line.

He was always most concerned about how
much money am I going to have to pay to

get out from under this.

On June 6, 2017, Croman pleads guilty to
three felony.

So ultimately what we got Stephen Croman
for was him lying to the banks.

falsifying documents on his loan
application so that he could get higher

amounts, and then also misrepresenting
his income.

All other charges are dropped.

Croman agrees to serve one year in jail
and pays a $5 million tax settlement for

defrauding the state.

It was unprecedented. It really was the
first case of a landlord really being

prosecuted for his...

real estate business practices and
receiving jail time for that.

I thought even one year was an
extraordinary accomplishment.

Landlords, they never pay a price for
anything.

And for him to go to prison, I thought,
great, this is great.

Some observers point out that criminal
convictions don't have anything to do

with how Croman treated his tenants.

The fact that he got any jail time is
something, but it's also something that

wasn't actually charged.

At all, criminally, with harassing
tenants.

He was charged mainly with financial
crimes.

Under the current law, we were not able
to show improved tenant harassment

beyond a reasonable doubt. We couldn't
do that, and it wasn't part of the

indictment. Croman still faces a civil
lawsuit.

He turns himself in on October 3, 2017,
to begin serving time at the Manhattan

detention complex.

It's known as the Tunes.

It's a dramatic fall from grace for a
real estate tycoon worth an estimated

million.

And yet, the 51 -year -old hardly shows
any emotion.

His expression never changed from the
day he was arraigned until the day he

sentenced and sent off to jail. His
family never showed up, not for a single

court date.

Two months in, while Coleman adjusts to
his new surroundings...

The New York Attorney General announces
a settlement in the civil lawsuit.

A consent decree requires Croman to pay
$8 million to a tenant restitution fund,

the largest ever settlement for an
individual landlord.

Croman also agrees to let an independent
management company run more than 100 of

his residential properties for five
years.

We sued Anthony Falconite as well. He's
not allowed to have interactions with

the tenants.

Mr. Croman's portfolio.

Falconite is never criminally charged.

I will remember the Steve Croman case as
a decisive victory for the tenants of

New York City.

We know that the battle doesn't end when
we sign the settlement agreement. We're

still very committed to making sure that
he stays in line and that he complies

with all the different terms of the
agreement.

A spokesperson for Croman's firm, 9300
Realty, sent the following statement to

American Read.

We entered into a comprehensive
settlement agreement with the State

General, which we are diligently
implementing in line with our ongoing

using best practices to provide quality
housing for our residents.

Croman is released from the tombs on
June 1, 2018, after serving eight

He's out of jail and running his
business under supervision for seven

Yet his critics feel Croman may resume
business as usual.

You think Croman's going to stop being
vicious and greedy?

I don't think so. I don't think he's
been converted. I've prayed for his

conversion, but I don't think he's done
it.