President Donald Trump's lawyer, Michael Cohen, is under federal scrutiny for dealings with a bank that loaned him money against his New York taxi business, The Washington Post reported.
According to the Post, which cited an unnamed source, the FBI raid on Cohen's office was not only in search of information on what part he played in payoffs to two women who claimed they had affairs with the president — but also for his dealings with New York-based Sterling National Bank on his taxi medallions.
The Post reported Cohen is now under federal investigation for possible bank fraud, wire fraud, and campaign finance violations.
According to the Post, Cohen has held taxi interests as a side business even as he worked for Trump for the last decade. Public records show he took out a business loan from Sterling in late 2014 for an unspecified amount using three taxi companies as collateral.
Cohen also obtained a $1.98 million real estate loan with his in-laws from the bank in 2015, records show.
Andy MacMillan, a spokesman for Sterling, declined to comment.
The Post reported that although taxi medallions are not worth what the $1.2 million they used to command, due to the rise of ride-sharing companies like Uber and Lyft, they are still valuable assets, currently worth about $300,000 each — and are often used by their holders as collateral for loans.
Cohen started in the cab business in the 1990s while working as a personal injury lawyer — before he joined the Trump Organization.
But he left the taxi business a decade ago to work for Trump, though he has maintained ownership of a few dozen taxi medallions in New York and Chicago, according to Cohen and public records, the Post reported.
When he was in the taxi business full-time, Cohen worked with Simon Garber, an immigrant from the former Soviet Union who also operated a fleet of cabs in Moscow.
Cohen told The Post last year he sold the management of the fleet to Garber around 2003, but he retained ownership of some medallions. Their relationship soured during a contractual dispute, the Post reported.
By then, Cohen was working as an attorney at the Trump Organization and collecting income on a small number of medallions.
He contracted with Evgeny "Gene" Friedman, another immigrant from the former Soviet Union known as the "Taxi King" of New York, to manage his fleet, according to people with knowledge of the taxi industry.
Friedman declared bankruptcy on some of his medallions in 2016 and currently faces charges by the New York state attorney general with theft related to allegedly failing to pay $5 million in taxes; he has pleaded not guilty and goes on trial June 18, the Post reported.
Records held by the New York Department of Taxation and Finance show that Cohen's medallion companies currently owe more than $55,000 in taxes, the Post reported.
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