A taxi fleet boss who received a profane tongue lashing from NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg replete with two f-bombs announced on Wednesday that he is suing “hizzoner.”
The New York Post reports that Gene Freidman, CEO of Taxi Club Management, was accosted last Thursday by a spitting-mad Bloomie.
The tête-a-tête came on the heels of Friedman’s besting the mayor in court, persuading a Manhattan Supreme Court judge to reject the Bloomberg’s “Taxi of Tomorrow” program, which paradoxically would replace the existing fleet of New York taxis with gas-burning Nissan minivans.
According to an eyewitness, the mayor approached Freidman at Madison Square Garden and vowed to “destroy your f**king industry.”
Late yesterday, Freidman’s attorneys filed suit in Manhattan federal court, accusing Bloomberg and Taxi and Limousine Commissioner David Yassky of ordering taxi inspectors to dump a blizzard of bogus tickets — totaling about $3.5 million — on cabs operated by Freidman’s organization.
Steve Mintz, one of the lawyer representing Freidman, said:
It’s deeply disappointing and terribly disturbing that the mayor will use his powers to try to beat people who disagree with him into oblivion.
Mintz further accused the TLC of imposing $85,000 in fines on one of Freidman’s medallions and similar penalties against dozens of others. Yassky, according to the suit, offered to revoke the fines in exchange for Freidman dropping his challenge to the mayor’s plan.
A source close to Freidman is quoted as telling the Post, “These are the acts of a big, bad bully. It’s Putin-esque.”
The amended federal suit seeks a jury trial and unspecified monetary damages.
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