Newsday from New York, New York • 17

Y.ID CITY A1 HOME FOR MENTALLY ILL VICTIMIZED Queens man stole reports on the home. Both than $200,000 for personal ex- for the Aged run by Sherman as the nonprofit Ocean House. than were charged in a 34-count in- penses, said he stole from Taub's brother-in-law Beryl The Taubs had been charged more by dictment with grand larceny Ocean House from 1995 to Zyskind, until he was convict- with inflating a falsely inflating size and other felonies. Sherman 2003. ed in federal court of bank Ocean House renovation loan Taub was the operator of the Judah Taub, 35, got off easier.

fraud and theft of residents' to include major renovations at of mortgage and then home and his son the presi- He stood at the rail of Yates' funds and sentenced to 30 Jay Taub's home in Lawrence, was accepting payments dent. courtroom in 100 Centre St. yes- months behind bars in 1996. including bathrooms and a new Sherman Taub was promised terday and admitted to the After Zyskind defaulted on kitchen for more than $135,000. BY KAREN FREIFELD a sentence of 1 to 3 years be- false annual reports.

the mortgages, Sherman Taub Manhattan Assistant District STAFF WRITER hind bars, if he meets certain The son was promised 3 arranged to purchase them for. Attorney Daniel Castleman conditions, including restitu- years' probation, provided he $400,000 a steep discount said conditions for the resiA Queens man pleaded tion of $1.65 million. Taub, who amends his 2002 tax returns, by using a secret third party. dents of Ocean House have imguilty yesterday to stealing paid back $360,000 yesterday, the judge said. He then reorganized the home proved.

more than $1.8 million from a has until 2007 to make the final The investigation into Ocean adults nonprofit while, home for authorities mentally say, ill payment. State Supreme Court Justice from House the began Manhattan after a district detective at- Inmate commits suicide the residents were left to live in James Yates set sentencing for torney's office went there to inabysmal conditions. Nov. 15. terview someone in connection An inmate at a city jail com- contempt charge.

His name Sherman Taub, 59, of Flush- If convicted at trial, Sherman with an attempted murder case mitted suicide yesterday morn- was not released yesterday, ing took the money from Taub could have faced 8 to and was appalled by the con- ing, Correction Department of- pending notification of his famiOcean House Center in Far 25 years in prison. ditions there. The DA referred ficals said. ly. Rockaway by claiming its mort- "I wrongfully took more than the case to the state Commis- John Mohan, a Correction The inmate used shoelaces gage was $4 million, when it $1.8 million from Ocean House sion on Quality Care for the Department spokesman, said and towels to fashion a noose.

was really $400,000, according Center Inc. with intent to Mentally Disabled, which is- the inmate was discovered in a A correction officer on his to the Manhattan district attor- benefit myself and my compa- sued a report in October 2001 cell at the Vernon C. Bain Cen- morning rounds discovered the ney's office. He created his ny, International Mortgage Ser- that included the questionable ter hanging from a ceiling grate man and cut him down from own mortgage company to ac- vice Sherman Taub ad- mortgage. A further investiga- at about 11 a.m.

the grate. Paramedics attemptcept the payments. mitted yesterday. tion revealed the shell compa- The suicide was the second ed unsuccessfully to revive Taub's son, Judah, 35, of Taub, a lawyer who resigned ny. this year in the jail system.

him, Mohan said. He was proLawrence, pleaded guilty yes- from the bar in 1996 after being Ocean House was formerly The inmate, 33, was being nounced dead at 11:40 a.m. terday to filing false financial accused of billing clients more known as Hi-Li Manor Home held on an aggravated criminal GRAHAM RAYMAN Guilty plea in mortgage scam WARTIME STORIES CONTROVERSY Veteran finally gets his Silver Star BY RON HOWELL STAFF WRITER After 60 years including three recent ones in which a pall of doubt was cast over his stories of wartime valor Michel Thomas yesterday received a Silver Star at a ceremony in Manhattan. "It means so much to me to see all of you who came to witness what Congresswoman Maloney has actually achieved in getting me this Silver Star. in getting it for me after 60.

years," an emotional Thomas told a gathering of several dozen friends and supporters at the Seventh Regiment Armory on Park Avenue and 66th Street. Before Thomas spoke, Maloney, a Manhattan Democrat, pinned the Army award on the 90-year-old New Yorker and read an accompanying citation praising Thomas for heroic actions in France during World War II, sometimes going on dangerous patrol alone "with utter disregard for his personal safety." But the silent backdrop to the event was a 2001 investigative story by the Los Angeles Times that raised questions about many of Thomas' asserted exploits, including his claim to have discovered a cache of millions of Nazi personnel files. The Times identified another man, Hans Huber, a German, Rep. Carolyn Maloney pins the prestigious Silver GAINES Star on veteran Michel Thomas. NEWSDAY as the one who saved the documents from destruction.

Thomas sued the Times, alleging defamation. A federal judge tossed out the suit and ordered Thomas to pay legal fees. In the three years since the Times story, Alex Kline, a San Francisco-based investigator hired by Thomas, has been on a campaign to clear Thomas' name. One of the tactics was to get Maloney to write letters supporting a bid for the Army to recognize what Thomas did for the U.S. forces in 1944, Kline said.

Yesterday's awarding of the Silver Star was the culmination of that campaign, Kline said. "The only reason pursued the Silver Star was the nasty treatment of the Los Angeles Times," Kline said in an interview after the ceremo- ny, which his brother, actor Kevin Kline, attended. Notably, the Army citation presented to Thomas identifies him as a lieutenant in the "French Force of the Interior," even though Thomas maintains he was an officer in the U.S. Army. The Times story said the Army has no record of Thomas as a American serviceman.

Explaining the discrepancy, Kline said that Thomas who, according to his authorized biography, was born in Poland and named Moniek Kroskof was in fact a counterintelligence agent in the U.S. Army. Kline said the Army never bothered to later formalize his status by putting him "through an official induction process." He said Thomas did not pursue the matter because he was busy building a foreign-language school in the United States. contes.