Dates set for Green to pay

A judge wants to know why the millionaire hasn't paid restitution in his fraud case.

By JEFF TESTERMAN, Times Staff Writer
Published December 11, 2007

TAMPA - For the second time in two months, U.S. Judge Susan C. Bucklew wanted answers.

If New York real estate investor Steven Green was worth $77-million when he was sentenced on fraud charges in February, she asked at a hearing Monday, why had nine months passed without him paying a dime of the $4.11-million restitution she ordered?

The answers Bucklew was given were not reassuring. Lots of money was flowing in and out of Green's companies, but none of it was going to the victim he defrauded six years ago.

A financial manager said Green's company sold as many as 19 apartment properties this year. Some $2-million a month was being paid out on debt for other apartment complexes. Salaries for Green's top employees were recently doubled.

But not a penny was available for the court-ordered restitution.

Green's 74-year-old mother, appointed guardian recently after an accident left Green in a coma, said nearly $1-million had been transferred from one bank account to provide money for Green's Essex House condo in Manhattan and to pay for $90,000-a-month care for Green at Mount Sinai Hospital.

But nothing for restitution.

And the exclusive homes owned by Green on the island of Nantucket and in Tampa's Hyde Park? Might they be sold to pay the restitution?

The financial manager said the homes had been transferred to Green's mother, Mary Green. But then Mrs. Green took the stand and said she didn't know what assets she had or who owned the two homes.

These were not the answers the judge sought. Alluding to dwindling cash, the selloff of properties, salary increases, personal real estate Steven Green said he owned but suddenly no longer owned, Bucklew said, "There are some things here that are very hard to reconcile. ... It's sort of a moving target."

Steven Green's attorneys - two from New York and one from Tampa - asked for six more months to pay the restitution, saying several deals to liquidate Green's apartment holdings were still being hammered out.

But Bucklew said no.

"My concern is that these assets are being dissipated, and I'm not sure if we wait another six months, that there might be even less left," the judge said.

Bucklew ordered $100,000 be paid by the end of this month. She also established a repayment plan: $112,000 by Feb. 1, $500,000 by March 3, another $500,000 by April 4, and the remainder of more than $3-million by May 2.

The restitution must include interest, which by Monday had ballooned to $152,076.

Should the money not be paid on schedule, the judge could use a number of remedies, including contempt of court, according to a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Bucklew said Monday that she had just learned that Green had not paid a $10,000 fine, due when she levied it at sentencing nine months ago.

She demanded payment, with interest, by week's end. "Had I known it had not been paid, I probably would have taken Mr. Green into custody," she said.

The judge said she would wait for a condition update in July before deciding whether Green is well enough to report to prison.

Green, a 42-year-old real estate investor and philanthropist, pleaded guilty in November 2006 to fraudulent use of a phony Social Security number and failing to file income tax returns for 1999 to 2001, when his personal income exceeded $3-million.

Green used the fake Social Security number when applying for a $9-million loan to buy the 212-unit Amberwood apartments in northern Hillsborough. After a fire damaged 20 units in 2001, county inspectors found hundreds of code violations and shut down the complex, displacing dozens of residents. Wells Fargo Bank suffered a $4.11-million loss when Green stopped paying on the apartment loan.

In February, Bucklew sentenced Green to 33 months in prison and ordered him to pay the fine and restitution. Green's attorneys were given eight months to raise the money for restitution by liquidating apartment properties.

On May 9, about six weeks before Green was to report to prison, he was critically injured in a hit-and-run accident outside a New York nightclub. Green emerged from a coma after two months but remains brain-damaged. He spent most of an interview with a court worker this month "talking to himself," according to records.

In testimony Monday, Green's mother, a widow and retired VA nurse, appeared to be in the dark about her son's holdings, particularly in regard to a $4.2-million mansion at 801 S Delaware Ave. in Tampa and a $1.44-million home on Nantucket.

Once listed as Steven Green's assets, both homes are now part of Green Family Holdings.

Green's financial manager said Monday that Mary Green is the only member of that ownership group.

Are you the only member? Mary Green was asked. "So I'm told," she replied.

Mrs. Green did not know what assets might be hers or when her son might have transferred property into Green Family Holdings. She punctuated Monday's hearing when she contradicted Green's financial manager, blurting out, "I'm not even sure those assets the two homes belong to Green Family Holdings."

Jeff Testerman can be reached at (813) 226-3422 or testerman@sptimes.com

[Last modified December 11, 2007, 00:31:53]