Taxi King Gets Double Dose Of Disbarment

Reciprocal disbarment has been ordered by the New Jersey Supreme Court based on a recommendation of its Disciplinary Review Board

Respondent, referred to in the record as the “Taxi King,” once owned and operated 800 taxi medallions in New York. Due to the emergence of Uber and other ride-sharing businesses, the taxi industry struggled, and respondent’s businesses were on the brink of financial ruin. In an attempt to save his businesses, respondent began to illegally refrain from remitting to the State of New York and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) certain surcharges collected from taxi customers. Moreover, to conceal his theft and tax evasion, he filed false MTA surcharge tax returns and submitted fraudulent information in his own tax returns.

Consequently, on June 1, 2017, a grand jury for the Supreme Court of New York charged respondent with four counts of first-degree tax fraud, in violation of New York Tax Law § 1806, for his failure to remit more than $1,000,000 owed for tax years 2012 through 2015.1 The grand jury also charged respondent with one count of first-degree grand larceny, in violation of New York Penal Law § 155.42, for his theft of more than $1,000,000 from the State of New York.

During the pendency of his criminal case, New York disciplinary authorities charged respondent with failure to cooperate in an investigation of
irregularities in his attorney trust account (ATA). During a January 23, 2017 interview with New York disciplinary authorities, respondent admitted improperly using his ATA in connection with his taxi businesses. On May 1, 2018, the Supreme Court of New York, Appellate Division, First Judicial Department, disbarred respondent, finding that he had been temporarily suspended for more than six months and had failed to cooperate with disciplinary authorities, including failing to produce required financial records for his ATA.

(Mike Frisch)