Monsey - Man Linked To Moses Stern Must Pay $1.75 Million In Bank Fraud Case

A Monsey man linked to an FBI-undercover investor accused of bribing Spring Valley and New York City officials has been sentenced to repay $1.75 million from a bank fraud conviction.

David Neumann was sentenced to three years’ supervised probation and ordered to pay restitution by U.S. District Judge Warren Eginton, said Herbert Hadad, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in White Plains.

Eginton sentenced Neumann on June 7 at the federal courthouse in White Plains.

Neumann pleaded guilty to a bank fraud charge involving the 2007 sale of a single-family house at 39 Remsen Ave. in Monsey.

The dilapidated house is next door to a mansion owned by investor Moses Mark Stern, who pleaded guilty to undisclosed federal charges in March after working undercover for the FBI.

A Stern-owned company, Richmond Mercantile USA Ltd., sold 39 Remsen Ave. for $1.85 million to Neumann and Yehuda Brull, records show. Stern had bought the house a few months earlier for $600,000, records show.

To pay for the house, Neumann used $1.75 million in mortgages, which went into foreclosure. Federal charges were dropped against Brull.

Neumann was accused of forging assessments to get mortgages and lines of credit for inflated prices. He was accused of submitting a phony appraisal on the house.

Stern is not mentioned in the federal case against Neumann.

Working for the FBI, Stern helped target Spring Valley Mayor Noramie Jasmin and Deputy Mayor Joseph Desmaret on bribery-related charges involving a fictitious plan to build a kosher catering hall near Village Hall.

Jasmin is accused of demanding a 50 percent share in the business. Desmaret is accused of taking $10,500 from Stern.

Stern also provided bribe money on behalf of the FBI in a sting operation that led to the arrest of state Sen. Malcolm Smith, D-Queens, and several New York City Republican officials in a scam to get Smith the party’s nod for mayor, prosecutors said.

In return, Smith was going to funnel $500,000 in state transportation funds to Spring Valley for a road project sought by Stern, according to federal charges.

By Steve Lieberman -Lohud