Original subtitles

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?

Want inside information from the show?

Join the Greed social network.

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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.