“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 Russian-born mogul’s licenses expired and the TLC declined to renew them because of his controversial past with the agency. Freidman, who has been in a downward spiral of arrests and lawsuits for the past two years, has angered the drivers and medallions owners by not paying the state and the city millions of dollars in surcharges, leaving them on the hook for the money.
Others in the industry say they are glad the TLC finally took Freidman’s licenses.
“He has given the industry a bad name,” said a taxi medallion agent who’s known Freidman for years. “Mr. Freidman for years has flouted regulations and been allowed to get away with it.”
Late last year, a bankruptcy judge ruled that Freidman had to turn over 46 of the medallions he owned to to pay debtors. He still owns about 150 medallions, sources say.
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Good to see him get what he deserved
See you @ city hall
the medallion system is already dead, is a thing of the past.
last year April, a medallion was sold for $350k, and some says you must be a fool sell it for $350k, and this year’s April, it was sold for $241k, next year’s April it will be $150k, medallion is dead!!!
The TLC publishes prices of transaction and extremely limited info about the details of the deal. Currently the bank/credit unions are not permitted to issue new loans trapping many that have worked decades to pay it off and are stuck accepting these horrible deals. No one know what money was passed under table. Bank funded deals are not in the 200s 300s. Call a broker such as me to give the full details. Email me to set up an appointment. I love to discuss the industry with any one