[Investigative Reporter]

I recently met a woman who was scammed by the former owner of Tavern on Nostrand, David Seatts. When she was telling me her story I was appalled. Apparently the guy is charlatan who was able to defraud a number of people around town for hundreds of thousands of dollars, though most people have been silent about it.

I've done a bit of research on Seatts and found some interesting information. In addition to Tavern, Seatts owned a number of businesses and properties in Crown Heights and other locales. Suspiciously, none of his steady rotation of businesses in Crown Heights ever lasted more than a year (Tavern being the exception). While some suggest that it was because he was not a smart businessman, others suspect that that the businesses were a money laundering front. I've heard stories that he would expend large sums of money - thousands of dollars - all in cash.

In addition to Tavern, many do not realize that Seatts co-owned a few businesses in downtown Brooklyn/Brooklyn Heights that all closed in 2008 after a large controversial criminal investigation. There was a big story in the Times about it. One of the co-owners was stealing tens of thousands of dollars from customer credit cards and doctoring the business records. Seatts was never indicated, however, people that I have spoken with suggest that he was very likely involved in the criminal activity.

Closer to home, Seatts also scammed the former owner of the spa on Union. He "sold" her the business back in 2007, representing that he was the owner of the property and making a bunch of representations about the success of the business. Turns out his story was all contrived to get her money. When she tried to obtain the books and records from him, he said they were "stolen". She ended up suing him for fraud for the $40,000 that she paid for the business. She won that case.

And then, two weeks after the first woman sued him for $40,000, he approached another person about purchasing a business from him for $40,000. He'd said that the business was going to open and gave her phony documentation and false representations about the business, but it wasn't
the case. He didn't get any government permits or approvals to open the
business suggesting that he had no intention of actually opening the business. Since they were supposed to be business partners, he was required
to provide her with various documentation and business records, which he never did. He never opened the business.

When she confronted him on it, he said that he was going to return her money, but to date he has not. Apparently when the heat came down, he sold his house and all of his remaining businesses and skipped town. She is in court on the case now, and apparently his lawyer just dropped his case. She's been fighting to get the business records from him, but he's refused to provide them claiming that he has no bank statements, financial statements, no receipts, no invoices, or any other record of what he did with the money.

Seatts also had another business partner in a local pizza shop (the one on Union and Nostrand). There was some bad blood between the two of them though I haven't been able to gather the details on that one) and the business closed less than a year later.

I've dug up some other (public record) information on Seatts. He was sued back in 2007 by another landlord on Nostrand Avenue for failing to pay rent to the tune of tens of thousands of dollars. He lost that case. He was also sued for around $20,000 when he owned Tavern for stealing cable services. He lost that case. Con Edison has three lawsuits against him.

In addition, part of his scam was to take money from tenants, claiming that he was the landlord of a property, when in reality he was the sub-landlord. He would pocket the money, but not pay the real landlord. He did this with both residential and commercial tenants alike.

I find it fascinating the extent of his schemes ... and that no one really knows these stories. The opinions around town about Seatts are decidedly mixed. Many say that he was "shady", "creepy", "crazy" or "perverted", but others commend him for bringing quality establishments to the neighborhood (of course, the means by which he did it are highly questionable). I'm a journalism major and actually trying to do a story on this guy.

If anyone has any additional info, please share!

[Jack Krohn]

Interesting piece. Does he still own Tavern on Dean?

[sweet tea]

No.
_________________
That's right, I'm not from Brooklyn.
But Brooklyn wants me anyway.

[Investigative Reporter]

He did not own Tavern on Dean. He owned Tavern on Nostrand, but he has since sold the business along with all of his other businesses in Crown Heights.

If anyone is interested, here is the NY Times article about the criminal investigation of his other businesses: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/04/nyregion/04fraud.html

[Lo Kee]

[SnowboardQueen]

[snowboarding]

Hey,

He was my landlord for about a year and a half. It was fine, he was totally shady but treated myself and my roommates very well. When we originally signed the lease he claimed to be the owner of the apartment. It wasn't until a about a year later there were notices on our front door claiming that the rent hadn't been paid in months. Come to find out he actually was not the owner, but subletting the apartment to us. What was weird was that he was actually charging us the same rent as what he would pay, so we wasn't making any money off of us. He also reimbursed us for painting/repairing the kitchen and gave us free food at Tavern. I am happy to not be his tenant anymore, his cell phone # changed monthly and there was obvious kinds of shady business going on. If you want to hear more stories, I have plenty! Shoot me a PM.

[intuned]

I did business with David around the time the spa was being 'sold' in March 2007.
This man has robbed so, so many people, and I am one of them.
It may be easy for someone to say do your due deligience, this was done on my part. David Seatts showed me his 'restaurants', his home on Carroll Street and I had no reason to belive he was not the contractor or restauranteur he said he was. I gave him over 65k over two months and did not get the services promised. Instead he left me with a big mess to clean up and a pile of bills!
He deserves everything coming to him as I believe in karma!
As for him having left the country, NOT so, he is still here and is rumoured to be opening another restaurant on Macon St in Bedford Stuyversant.
You can send a PM to me for more info. I would also like the name of the attorney the lady from the spa used. That would make things a lot easier for all who choose to get some or all of their monies from him!
_________________
Do the right thing, even when no one is watching!

[Investigative Reporter]

Had the same question Lo Kee - but actually in at least one case significant diligence was done. Like intuned, the investor saw his restaurants and his home. She also did a background check on him, met one of his "business partners" (the one who ended up in jail now for fraud), and reviewed the books and records of his other businesses (which had, as it turns out, been falsified).

At the end of the day, there is only so much diligence that can be done and be effective against a professional con artist a la Bernard Madoff.

I too have heard about this restaurant in Bed-Stuy. I've actually spoken with someone that Seatts approached to invest in the business with him.

I get the sense that part of the issue was that people had a level of trust for him because he lived in the neighborhood, was always around, owned a number of "successful" businesses, and appeared to be well off. Plus, a lot of people were silent about what happened to them so he was able to get away with it for a while. It wasn't until all of these lawsuits started coming against him that he had to leave town.

He's moved around a lot, so I suspect that he does this in neighborhoods until he gets caught and then moves on.

[vaportrail]

Wow! Even though this is still 'alleged', this explains a heck of a lot! Great post IR!

[SnowboardQueen]

[intuned]

How can I find the name of the atty the wonam from the spa used to sue David? I am trying to track down other people who may have been scammed by him.
I had put him out of my mind but now think it's time to do something about this!
_________________
Do the right thing, even when no one is watching!

[Investigative Reporter]

If you go to the e-courts on the NY courts website and type in 'Seatts' in both the supreme and civil courts, you'll find a bunch of cases against him. For some reason the Con Ed suits are not showing up, but they are there.

But those are not the only ones. In some cases, his name does not come up in the search because he was not the first named defendant. I was able to dig up some with the help of a friend who is a paralegal, using some legal search sites.

Another one of the cases was found through a Google search: http://www.websupp.org/data/EDNY/1:06-cv-01121-7-EDNY.pdf

I've heard that the landlord of the buildings that Seatts was leasing on the south side of Nostrand is suing him, but have not been able to find any court records to that effect.

Also, intuned and snowboarding, I sent you a PM.