Bank claims Gene Freidman transferred $70 million worth of real estate to hide assets from creditors
Known as the New York City “Taxi King”, Evgeny (Gene) Freidman has been sued by Citibank N.A., claiming that he hid $70 million in real estate properties from them and other creditors while they were attempting to collect on unpaid loans.
In March 2015, Citibank tried to seize approximately 90 of Freidman’s taxi medallions in order to recover just part of the $31 million of debt that has remained unpaid. At that time, Freidman agreed to a confidential agreement with Citibank that pushed off any property seizures until June 2015.
Over the next couple of months, the Taxi King then transferred $70 million of real estate properties into separate offshore trust funds. While he claimed that he transferred this property into trusts as part of estate-planning to help his children, Citibank did not take lightly to the news.
Once Citibank learned of the movement of property, they filed a lawsuit against Freidman in order to stop him from moving any additional assets that the bank could seize to pay against the large amount of debt owed.
“Freidman’s actions epitomize the type of wrongful conduct that this court can, and should, set right,” Citibank officials said.
“The reason we are in this position is simple: We extended loans to Mr. Freidman’s businesses, they defaulted on them, and he has repeatedly refused to make a good-faith effort to work with us to resolve the matter,” Citibank spokesman said.
In response to the suit, Freidman’s lawyers claim that there wasn’t anything secretive or improper about his conduct.
Earlier in the year, a judge declared that Citibank could seize the taxi medallions unless the Taxi King posted a $50 million bond.
In July 2015, Freidman filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection for 22 companies that collectively own 46 medallions. “The filing was necessary to protect the medallions and the companies from aggressive litigation pursued by Citibank NA to seize the medallions,” said a statement on behalf of Freidman.
The argument from Freidman is that if Citibank seized the medallions and then sold at a decreased price, it could cause a shift in devaluation of all the taxi medallions – including those not owned by him. He advised that altering the pricing of the historically financially-sound medallions could cause a collapse of the whole taxi industry.
By Samantha
YellowCabNYCTaxi.com Staff Writer
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City must sell new medallions to drivers with reasonable prices .its a big mistake to sell it individual who dont drive them .if you own it you drive it
Prices are reasonable now. They may never be this low again.
Medallion prices will go lower and lower!!! I guarantee.
Mark my words,i know for a fact!!!
no info so far on whether any Parisian taxi drivers
were killed in attacks.
Maybe as whipping boys they wouldn’t be important enough.
What’s the thing with the site where the screen
goes off to the right?
U boot up, and you only get half a screen to the right, and it goes to full screen, then half screen, losing quite a bit of material.
U can use the arrows to center it again, but it doesn’t stay there. Some kind of unpleasant problem.
Check this out regarding prices taxivault.com
I went to taxivault. Interesting site. No really new info there but a good site especially for those who haven’t kept up. Thanks for the info. I bookmarked it and will visit it many times. Uber baby.
I have to sue woodside management for my money.
Does anyone can give me Mr. Friedman’s email so I can shot him a email before going to court. I just want to give it a try to resolve my issue before take it to court.
Please help me in the process. Or even a responsible person’s number. Not those shit dispatchers at the counter.
Couldn’t boot up taxivault site.Friend says it look
lke copy of yellow site.
I’m stick w yellow site.Sunday but no new thread today.
I don’t know what I did wrong. Last night I was in the city by 5:10 PM and worked until my usual of 2 AM. I only grossed $215!!!. I’m driving 9 years and haven’t done so poorly in the fall. If it is this bad now, I can only imagine what January and February will be like. Time to get out of this yellow submarine. It seems like people just aren’t going out like they used to anymore, and this is before the Paris attacks. Last Sunday was also very disappointing.
Thank you for your blog about taxis
Joe I started at 4 quit at midnight and grossed $285. You are looking for $ in the wrong places. Did you go to JFK? Go empty it’s worth it on Sunday.
I only stay in the city. I hate the airports.
Thank you for your blog interest about taxis.
Hi there.
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Jane D.