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Impunity City
Richmond Hill, Queens, N.Y.
What the hell is up with this bank? For some peculiar reason, NYCB
decided to end human interaction customer and teller service at this
Liberty Ave. branch back in April and has only made this bank available
for ATM service. But only for withdrawals and not deposits. It’s like
one of those crappy looking machines you see by bodegas or barstaurants
except it’s an entire commercial storefront version of it.
Patch
When the White Horse Tavern building was purchased by the notorious
landlord Steve Croman, West Villagers grew anxious for the building's
future.
Croman had served jail time for tax fraud and was required to pay $8 million in restitution back to tenants he was accused of harassing. The landlord ultimately pleaded guilty
to a scheme that involved obtaining multi-million dollar refinancing
loans — which included submitting false mortgage documents to New York
Community Bank and Capital One Bank.
But now, New York Community Bank has welcomed Croman back.
The bank is the lender for Croman's purchase
of the $13.7 million building, located at 567 Hudson St., mortgage
documents and property records show.
A spokesman for New York Community Bank did not return multiple calls for comment.
Tenants' advocates have raised concerns about the standards banks hold landlords to when they give out loans.
"I'll
leave it to the bank regulators to decide whether it's safe and sound
to lend to someone who defrauded you," said Jaime Weisberg, a senior
campaign analyst for Association for Neighborhood and Housing
Development (ANHD).
"We've been in regular conversation with the
bank about this particular landlord for years," Weisberg added. "To be
doing business with somebody with such a poor record with tenants is
concerning.
"We want banks to be mindful of this because their lending matters," she said.
