immediate response. a source with knowledge tells the daily news shortly after the subpoena went out michael cohen personally contacted the tax department to talk. the source would not say what the response was from the tax department but typically in such cases where someone has a lawyer, investigators deal with their counsel and not directly with the person. in new york state, barbara underwood and the tax department are the ones that brought these devastating charges against gene friedman, the taxi king all these movement felony, put that pressure on him and flipped him. it appears that cooperation deal probably led to the charges michael cohen just pled to. boom. now the same dynamic duo, new york attorney general barbara underwood and tax department of new york state are investigating
their counsel and not directly with the person. in new york state, barbara underwood and the tax department division in the state, they re the one who s brought these devastating charges against gene friedman, the taxi king, threatening him with decades in prison, $5 million in tax evasion, multiple felonies. they put that pressure on him squeezed him, flipped him. it appears that cooperation deal probably led to the charges michael cohen just pled to. boom. now the same dynamic duo, new york attorney general barbara underwood and the tax divisioning in new york state they are now investigating the trump foundation, trump s supposed charity for a potential criminal referral. we know they have a ton of evidence because barbara underwood laid it out in her civil case. that is the origin of the subpoena for michael cohen today. according to the daily news, he responded to that will subpoena immediately by personally
here s how it came to be. in may of this year, may 22nd, the new york times had a scoop that they probably only got because they are specifically the new york times. they sent crack reporters to an otherwise sleepy courthouse in albany, new york, not a federal courthouse, a state court, because that day in that state court in new york, a long-time business partner of michael cohen s, a taxicab mogul named gene friedman who everybody called the taxi king, he was in court. he had been facing really serious charges in new york, tax evasion charges in new york more than $5 million and four criminal counts of tax fraud and facing a charge of grand larceny. a big stack of charges involving a large amount of money and potentially a large amount of jail time. the story they uncovered at the courthouse that day, for some reason, friedman had gotten this huge criminal liability he was facing winnowed down to almost
them. this was like the mother of all plea deals. the amount he offered must have been very very valuable to the government given how sweet the deal was he got from them in return. that happened in late may. great catch by the new york times, super intriguing story, a good reminder it s good journalistic practice to hang out at the courthouse and see what happens. since then we haven t known what s going on with gene the taxicab friedman and his deal. gene friedman, the taxi king and michael cohen hadn t been just business partners in the taxi business they had shared an accountant who had been subpoenaed by federal prosecutors. now, we see where that s
york, u.s. attorney s office investigating cohen and andrea bernstein co-host of trump, inc. cohen gets raided. there is all this discussion about what is he being raided for? so then the times has a story saying it s possible bank fraud and it has to do possibly with a taxi medallion business? right. this is something michael cohen has been dock for quite some time because in new york, these taxi medallions pre irish were very valuable. gave you the right to pick up fares in new york city. that i could be worth more than a million dollars. michael conheld a lot of them. you could kind of people and hoard and you make money off them? exactly, like real staechlt can you trade and borrow money off of. that s what he was doing. and his fornl former partner, two former part first have been convicted. one recently in, no jane friedland known as the taxi king for allegedly or actually not allegedly, is sending $60 million offshore as a part of a