Thursday, June 14, traders in the auction received more than $24 million in cash for the 139 medallions, which once belonged to the so-called «taxi King» of new York, a native of St. Petersburg Evgeny Friedman.
A year ago, the Empire of the former Director of the largest Chapter in new York city service Taxi Club Management, Eugene (or Gene) Friedman began to crumble. «The taxi king» and his right hand — the financial Director of the company Andrea Dumitru was arrested on suspicion of a multimillion-dollar Scam for tax evasion.
The taxi king Evgeny Friedman. Screenshot of the video on YouTube
As we found out thanks to the joint efforts of the office of the attorney General new York Department of taxation and Finance of the state, Friedman and Dimitar falsified the number of taxable trips to the declarations of the Taxi Club, earning about $5 million.
After almost a year the former tycoon and his confidante confessed to the crime and agreed to cooperate with the Prosecutor General’s office.
The main demonstration event of the collapse of the «King cab» was the auction, which was held at the Sheraton LaGuardia East in Queens. Many colleagues Friedman and veterans in the industry came there to witness the auction after the bankruptcy of the largest company in the field of taxi services.
At the auction of 139 taxi medallions were sold to two anonymous buyers. One person bought the lot at 131 $170 thousand apiece, and the second 8 medallions for $250 thousand
As reported by the Daily News, when the taxi business was at its peak, one such medallion could be sold for $1 million, Friedman Himself admitted to the newspaper that was happy to part with the medallions, and believes that bidders overpaid.
A native of the USSR, he pleaded guilty after agreeing to cooperate with the government investigations of the activities of his former business partner and personal counsel to trump , Michael Cohen.
«The taxi king» will pay $1 million before sentencing on 22 may 2019 and will repay the remaining $4 million in installments. After pleading guilty, he also faces five years of probation.
