NY “Taxi King” Getting his Ferraris Repo’d

New York, NY – 19 July 2018 – It’s a long way down from the top. Evgeny “Gene” Freidman, once referred to as New York’s “Taxi King”, may soon be hailing cabs if Ferrari Financial Services receives an anticipated judgement on his two Ferraris.

Freidman, who had operated a fleet of over 800 cabs in NY, was recently sued by Ferrari Financial Services for defaulting on payments to his $384,000 458 Speciale and his $362,000 Ferrari FF. Ferrari Financial claims that he stopped making monthly payments on the cars in March, just weeks before he pleaded guilty tax charges.

Cab ownership in New York requites the purchase of a medallion, a metal plate displayed on the vehicle’s hood, and there are a limited and fixed number of these issued by the New York City Taxi & Limousine Commission (TLC). Until recently, medallions were a good thing to have a lot of. In 1947, a medallion could be purchased for as little as $2,500. In 2013, after a half-century of appreciation, they were worth about $1.32 million each.

Then came market interruption. Uber and Lyft. Since the arrival of the smart phone app services, the medallions, all issued were valued at about

$50 billion, taxi ridership plummeted as did revenues leaving many cabs and drivers sitting idle or, worse yet, joining the Uber/Lyft driver army.

Now, these once valuable and coveted chunks of hood metal are being sold for as little as $650,000.

This market interruption has had a damaging effect on Freidman’s net worth, which appears to be in free fall.

In March, 2018, Citibank took action to repossess on 90 of his medallions, alleging they were owed $31.5 million in unpaid loans. Friedman later settled with Citibank on half of the medallions, but 22 of Freidman’s companies owning the other half have since filed for bankruptcy protection.

Freidman, like many taxi owners, converted his medallions into two or three small taxi “boutique fleets” with colorful names like Vodka Taxi, Butterfly Taxi, Pinot Noir Taxi, and many others.

By July, a judge ordered him to pay over $8 million in delinquent payments to Capital One.

Aside from his own fleet of cabs, Freidman once operated cabs for other taxi medallion owners including Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump’s former personal fixer and lawyer. Freidman’s plea deal suggests Friedman could be cooperating with prosecutors investigating Cohen’s business and financial dealings. Cohen hasn’t been charged with wrongdoing.