A fleet of Evgeny “Gene” Freidman’s foreclosed taxi medallions sold on Monday in a closed-door auction taking place in a Queens, New York hotel.
All 46 medallions — the metal plates on yellow cab hoods allowing them to legally pick up street-hails — were won by a group identified in bankruptcy court documents as MGPE Inc. for a total of $8.56 million, or $186,000 per medallion, according to Crain’s New York. Business Insider was able to verify those numbers with an industry source as well.
Notorious “Taxi King” Gene Freidman was arrested at his Manhattan home on charges he ripped off the state for millions of dollars in taxi surcharges, authorities said Wednesday.
Freidman, who has been subject to a slew of criminal charges, civil suits, and professional penalties over the past two years, has been indicted and will be presented this afternoon in Albany to face four counts of criminal tax fraud in the first degree and one count of first-degree grand larceny, said a spokesman for state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman.
Each charge carries a maximum sentence of 8 1/3 to 25 years in prison.
Some pro-Trump cabbies are driving New Yorkers crazy.
At least four taxi drivers have each been fined hundreds of dollars by the city for praising President Trump — and, in some cases, making offensive comments to passengers, the Daily News has learned.
One political hack was hit with a $1,100 penalty and given three points on his license after a passenger complained that he went on a racist tirade during a Nov. 30 ride to Kennedy Airport, ranting that “the traffic is the fault of f—–g Africans and Muslims and that Trump is great for this country.”
“Taxi king” Gene Freidman is now the court jester of the cab industry.
Freidman will no longer be allowed to manage the more than 800 medallions he’s controlled for the past several years, the Taxi and Limousine Commission ruled this week.
“We have notified all the medallions that were in the management of those companies that they would need to be managed by others,” said TLC spokesman Allan Fromberg.
The Upper East Side’s taxi dependency has dwindled thanks to the opening of the Second Avenue subway this year, according to a new report.
Yellow cab pickups and drop-offs have dropped in the areas surrounding the line’s stations at 72nd, 86th and 96th streets, NYU’s Rudin Center for Transportation found in its latest study, published Tuesday.
“When people are offered an efficient service that works well, is comfortable and well-lit, they will absolutely opt for that over personal transportation, like taxis,” said Sarah Kaufman, a co-author of the report, which offers a narrow snapshot of how new subway service can impact congestion and bring equity to transit-starved neighborhoods.