Evgeny “Gene” Friedman has been dubbed in the past as New York City’s “taxi king”. This was because he owned and operated over 800 cabs for numerous NYC Medallion holders. Over the course of time, business fared him well enough that he was able to finance not one – but two Ferraris – both of which are now part of a lawsuit being lodged against Friedman by Ferrari Financial Services.
(Photo source: Bloomberg)
Friedman has recently pled guilty to state tax charges, which initially set off speculation that he may be working with prosecutors. According to Bloomberg, he was also recently ordered by a Brooklyn judge to pay $1.3 million “to a former accounts-payable manager who claimed she was sexually harassed and wrongfully fired. Freidman was accused of making unwanted sexual comments, bullying and making explicit comments about the employee’s body.”
Today, Bloomberg reported that Friedman is also being sued for not making the required monthly payments on his Ferraris, both of which total nearly $750,000.
Evgeny “Gene” Freidman, who had operated more than 800 cabs in New York, was sued by Ferrari Financial Services for failing to keep up payments on his $384,000 458 Speciale and his $362,000 Ferrari FF. The lender claims he stopped making monthly payments on the cars in March and April, just weeks before he pleaded guilty to state tax charges.
This wouldn’t be all that interesting, save for the fact that one of the Medallion holders that Friedman operates cabs for happens to be President Trump’s former attorney, Michael Cohen. This has caused speculation that Friedman may actually be working with authorities who may or may not be working with Michael Cohen.
We previously reported on former Trump lawyer Cohen “declaring his independence” from Trump. Michael Cohen’s new attorney said that Cohen, previously known as Donald Trump’s “fixer,” declared “independence” during a July 2 interview with George Stephanopoulos when he said he would not be a “punching bag” for Trump’s defense strategy.
“I will not be a punching bag as part of anyone’s defense strategy,” Cohen told Stephanopoulos. “I am not a villain in any story and won’t allow others to try and depict me in that way.”
Lanny Davis – Cohen’s attorney and longtime friend of the Clintons, made the comment during an interview with The Hill’s Rising which aired Wednesday.
“There’s a reason that he said at the very end of the interview with Mr. Stephanopoulos that he took these contrary positions to Mr. Trump, who he previously said he would take a bullet for, a comment that I believe he would not say today,” Davis said, adding “The reason he said is, ‘I will not be a punching bag as part of somebody else’s defense strategy.’ This was a declaration of independence two days before July 4.”
Stephanopoulos asked Cohen if Trump had directed him to make that $130K hush-money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels. Cohen previously claimed he paid the cash out of own pocket without direction from Trump or any promise of reimbursement. This time Cohen answered, “I want to answer. One day I will answer. But for now I can’t comment further on advice of my counsel.”
“A very, very big signal,” Stephanopoulos translated this morning on GMA.
Similarly, Cohen signaled he would have something to say in “official form” about whether President Trump knew in advance of that Trump Tower meeting between Don Jr., Paul Manafort, Jared Kushner and a Russian attorney with entourage, the latter team allegedly promising dirt on Hillary Clinton. Trump has insisted he was not aware of the meeting. –Deadline Hollywood
Davis then rattled off a list of reasons why Cohen and Trump are nowhere near agreement on various official government positions.
He [Cohen] mentioned the FBI and said he respected the FBI as an institution, and actually thanked them even though they raided his offices. Donald Trump has said the opposite.
He then said he believes the intelligence community’s assessment unanimously that Russia meddled in the election, and then he went on to say anyone that believes Mr. Putin can’t sustain that position. Exactly the opposite from Mr. Trump.
Then he said that he does not understand that Trump tower meeting, he thought it was a dumb decision – something that Mr. Trump wouldn’t necessarily like to hear. –Lanny Davis
When asked to opine on the FBI’s conduct during the 2016 election and whether he thought there was any criminal behavior described in the Inspector General’s report, Davis said he saw no criminal behavior by any of the subjects of the report, and that former FBI Director James Comey’s “terrible judgement” cost Hillary the election.
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As for Friedman’s Ferraris, since the embattled “taxi king” appears to be going through a bit of a cashflow crunch at this moment, if anyone were to offer him a lowball proposal to take over the payments, the bid would almost surely be hit.
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