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Gene Freidman

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Evgeny Alender Freidman (Russian: Евгений Алендер Фридман;[1]), known as Gene Freidman,[2] (November 29, 1970 – October 24, 2021) was an American businessman and attorney who once owned a large taxi fleet in New York City, Taxi Club Management, Inc. He was dubbed the "Taxi King" or "Kingpin."[3] He was a convicted felon and was disbarred.[4]

Early life and education

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Freidman was born on November 29, 1970,[5] into a Jewish family in Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg).[5] He was an only child.[6] He and his family immigrated to the United States as refugees in 1976, settling in Jackson Heights, Queens.[5] His father, Naum, was a thermonuclear engineer in Russia, but in New York, he became a cabdriver and eventually ran a garage with a fleet of taxis. He attended public schools in Queens, then The Bronx High School of Science, and graduated with a B.S. degree from Skidmore College in 1992, after being suspended for one semester for overdue parking tickets.[5] While in his senior year at Skidmore, Freidman intervened when two female students were being harassed at a bar and was hit in the face with a bottle. Surgeons used 400 stitches and barely saved his left eye.[7]

He received his J.D. from the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law of Yeshiva University in New York City and was admitted to practice law,[8] although he was disbarred in 2017 after pleading guilty to tax fraud.[9] After college, he worked as a lawyer for a production company in Los Angeles.[5] He then returned to the Soviet Union to represent a private investor.[5]

Career

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In 1996, after his father had a heart attack, Friedman took over his father's taxi company, Taxi Club Management Inc., which had 60 Yellow cabs. He expanded it to 900 by 2015.[5] He led the company from revenues of $2.5 million in 1996 to $120 million in 2008.[7]

In 2008, Freidman was listed on Crain's New York Business list of "40 Under 40".[7] Taxi Club Management permanently closed in 2018.[10]

Freidman managed the taxi fleet of Michael Cohen after Simon Garber purchased the management of most of Cohen's large fleet.[11][12] Cohen arranged an apartment for Friedman in Trump Tower.[5][when?]

Friedman would artificially bid up prices of taxi medallions at auctions, then use the inflated prices as a basis for loans from banks, leading to an economic bubble.[5][6][when?]

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In 2013, Freidman reached a settlement with the New York State Attorney General's office and the Taxi and Limousine Commission over excessive charges to taxi drivers working for three of Freidman's companies. Freidman agreed to pay $750,000 in restitution to drivers and $500,000 in fines.[13][14] Attorney General of New York Eric Schneiderman sued Freidman in April 2015 for failing to abide by the terms of the 2013 settlement and for further violations.[15][16] The suit was settled in April 2016 with Freidman required to pay over $250,000 in fines, damages, and restitution.[17]

In July 2016, companies that owned approximately 90 of Friedman's nearly 900 taxi medallions, filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy in an attempt to protect those medallions from foreclosure action by lenders. In December 2016, he agreed to surrender 46 of his medallions to settle obligations to Citibank.[18] In September 2016, Freidman was evicted from his longtime headquarters after falling $170,000 behind on his rent.[19][20] In April 2017, the Taxi and Limousine Commission refused to renew more than 800 of Freidman's licenses which had expired. At that time, Freidman still owned about 150 taxi medallions.[21]

In June 2017, Freidman along with Taxi Club Management's CFO Andreea Dumitru were indicted with four counts of criminal tax fraud in the first degree and one count of grand larceny in the first degree.[22][23] The indictments alleged that Freidman's company stole $5 million by never remitting the state the 50-cent surcharge, known as the Metropolitan Transportation Authority tax, that the company collected. On May 22, 2018, Freidman pleaded guilty to one count of criminal tax fraud in the second degree.[24][25] As part of his plea deal, Freidman was required to pay restitution of $1 million to the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance. Freidman’s sentence was suspended to allow him to complete his restitution payments. If he satisfied the terms of the agreement, he was to be sentenced to 5 years’ probation.[26][27]

In December 2017, Freidman served a 28-day sentence in Cook County Jail in Chicago for "indirect criminal contempt of court".[28]

Disbarment

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On July 13, 2017, Freidman was suspended from practicing law then, on May 1, 2018; he was barred from practicing law as an attorney in New York, for having failed to respond to notices or appear for investigation related to his suspension.[29]

Sexual harassment lawsuit

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In June 2018, Freidman lost a lawsuit to his former assistant whom he was found to have repeatedly sexually harassed. A New York court ordered him to pay $1.3 million in damages.[30][31][32]

Politics

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Freidman raised more than $50,000 for Mayor Bill de Blasio's campaign.[5][when?]

Personal life

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In 2015, before his financial troubles, Freidman owned a 4,000-square-foot townhouse off Park Avenue in Manhattan, an estate in Bridgehampton, New York, two villas in Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat on the French Riviera, and a $400,000 Ferrari.[5][6] He was a part owner of Arthur until the late 2000s, a chain that sold high-end pajamas and beach wear with whimsical French patterns.[33]

On October 24, 2021, Freidman died at the age of 50 in a Manhattan hospital, apparently from complications of a heart attack.[5]

References

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  1. ^ Grant, Alexander (July 25, 2018). "Проблемы "короля желтых кэбов" Нью-Йорка". Russkaya Reklama Novosti (in Russian).
  2. ^ Barro, Josh (April 10, 2015). "New York Taxi Mogul, Seeking a Bailout, Says He's Too Big to Fail". The New York Times.
  3. ^ Marsh, Julia; Fears, Danika (March 16, 2015). "'Taxi Kingpin' in massive debt thanks to Uber". New York Post.
  4. ^ "Michael Cohen's business partner, known as "Taxi King," pleads guilty in deal". CBS News. May 23, 2018.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Roberts, Sam (October 25, 2021). "Gene Freidman, 'Taxi King' Who Upended His Industry, Dies at 50". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331.
  6. ^ a b c Rosenthal, Brian M. (December 5, 2019). "The Epic Rise and Hard Fall of New York's Taxi King". The New York Times.
  7. ^ a b c "Evgeny Freidman – 2008–40 Under Forty". Crain Communications. July 26, 2018.
  8. ^ Chan, Sewell (November 4, 2005). "On the Street: Cleaner-Running Cabs". The New York Times.
  9. ^ Heelan, Melissa (April 30, 2021). "Convicted Lawyer Dubbed 'Taxi King' Now Disbarred in Two States". Bloomberg Law.
  10. ^ Thompson, S. H.; Teo, Sheryl E.; Kimes, Zhiyi Yong (2019). "Case Article—The Rise and Fall of Taxi Club Management in New York". Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences. 20 (1): 26–27.
  11. ^ Helderman, Rosalind S.; Hamburger, Tom; Leonnig, Carol (April 12, 2018). "FBI raid sought Trump lawyer's communications with bank that loaned him money against his taxi business". The Washington Post.
  12. ^ Leonnig, Carol D.; Hamburger, Tom; Barrett, Devlin (April 9, 2018). "Trump attorney Cohen is being investigated for possible bank fraud, campaign finance violations". The Washington Post.
  13. ^ Flegenheimer, Matt (December 19, 2013). "Taxi Industry Bids the Bloomberg Era a Not-So-Fond Farewell". The New York Times.
  14. ^ Donohue, Pete (December 10, 2013). "Taxi mogul to pay $1.2 million over allegations he was ripping off cab drivers". New York Daily News.
  15. ^ Fischer, Ben (April 23, 2015). "Schneiderman sues NYC's biggest taxi mogul". American City Business Journals.
  16. ^ "A.G. Schneiderman Sues Evgeny Freidman And His Taxi Management Companies For Allegedly Violating Taxi Drivers' Rights And Breaching Settlement Agreement" (Press release). Attorney General of New York. April 23, 2015.
  17. ^ "A.G. Schneiderman Obtains Consent Order Requiring Evgeny Freidman's Taxi Companies To Hire Independent Monitor To Protect Drivers' Rights" (Press release). Attorney General of New York. April 19, 2016.
  18. ^ SLATTERY, DENIS (December 31, 2016). "Taxi tycoon to cough up cabs, medallions to pay off debt". New York Daily News.
  19. ^ Furfaro, Danielle (September 9, 2016). "Controversial 'Taxi King' evicted from longtime headquarters". New York Post.
  20. ^ Hoffer, Jim (September 9, 2016). "Investigators exclusive: Taxi king who owes millions evicted from HQ". WABC-TV.
  21. ^ Furfaro, Danielle (April 7, 2017). "Taxi King no longer allowed to manage hundreds of medallions". New York Post.
  22. ^ "NYC 'Taxi King' accused of failing to pay $5 million in taxes intended for MTA improvements". WPIX. June 7, 2017.
  23. ^ "The People of the State of New York against Evegeny Freidman and Andreea Dumitru" (PDF). ag.ny.gov.
  24. ^ "A.G. Underwood and Acting Tax Commissioner Manion Announce Conviction of "Taxi King" Evgeny Freidman for Stealing Nearly $5 Million in MTA Taxes" (Press release). New York State Attorney General. May 22, 2018.
  25. ^ Helderman, Rosalind S. (May 23, 2018). "A one-time business associate of Michael Cohen known as New York's 'Taxi King' has agreed to cooperate with federal investigators". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286.
  26. ^ Hakim, Danny; Rashbaum, William K.; Wang, Vivian (May 22, 2018). "Michael Cohen's Business Partner Agrees to Cooperate as Part of Plea Deal". The New York Times.
  27. ^ "A.G. Underwood And Acting Tax Commissioner Manion Announce Conviction Of "Taxi King" Evgeny Freidman For Stealing Nearly $5 Million In MTA Taxes" (Press release). New York State Attorney General. May 22, 2018.
  28. ^ JORGENSEN, JILLIAN; ANNESE, JOHN (December 15, 2017). "'Taxi King' of NYC serving 28-day jail sentence for defying judge's order". New York Daily News.
  29. ^ "Matter of Freidman (2018 NY Slip Op 03116)". www.nycourts.gov. July 11, 2018.
  30. ^ Saul, Emily (June 27, 2018). "'Taxi King' must pay $1.3M to ex-assistant after sex harassment". New York Post.
  31. ^ ""Gutierrez v. Taxi Club Management, Inc.", United States District Court, E.D., New York". July 16, 2018 – via Leagle.com.
  32. ^ KESHNER, ANDREW (June 26, 2018). "Judge recommends 'Taxi King' pay $1.3M in sex harassment case". New York Daily News.
  33. ^ EDELSON, SHARON (March 26, 2008). "Arthur Brings Pj's With French Flair to U.S." Women's Wear Daily.
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