Posted on 12/19/2019 11:30:42 PM PST by knighthawk
Michael Cohen may regret selling his soul, prosecutors told a judge Thursday — but that doesn’t mean he should be granted a reduced sentence.
President Trump’s former fixer last week begged a judge to reduce his three year sentence to a year and a day, claiming he’d spent some 170 hours with government agencies providing cooperation.
Yet prosecutors write that Cohen was nothing more than a shoddy witness and a liar, whose so-called snitching led absolutely nowhere within their office.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
For 25 years, he carefully invested in New York City taxi medallions and became a millionaire.
Then, about 5 years ago, Uber got court ordered permission to compete in New York City.
Cohen's taxi medallions lost 90% of their value.
Obviously, Cohen's tax fraud and loan fraud were inexcusable decisions for a grown man with a law license.
On the other hand, without the sudden and unpredicted ascendancy of Uber in New York City, Cohen would still be living comfortably in one of the most expensive cities in the world.
He is a traitor at the end of the day. His 30 pieces of silver didn’t go far, may his chains rest heavily upon him.
You make a good point about the lousy value now in NY City over the stupid taxi-medallions. In 2005, before Uber, the medallion was in the range of $350,000 for each single one. Five years later, they were nearing $600,000 each.
Now? $120,000 to $150,000. I doubt if any bank would go and give you a 5-million dollar loan based on your ownership of sixty of these. I could see them sinking below $50,000 in the next decade.
When I said down 90%, I was including the lost income as well.
I just glanced at Wiki...
July 2019 - 16 medallions went to auction. Three sold between $135,000 and $140,000.
Thirteen medallions received no bid.
I would make a bet that a minimum bid of $135k was set on all 16 medallions. Those three bought....probably were the first three of the sales event, and people were expecting lower bid number of $100k to $120k.
13,587 medallions exist in the system. For those who bought them them in the 1970s and 1980s....they probably still retain the original value and maybe 30 to 50 percent on top of that. For those who bought them since 2000....they’ve all lost money, and they won’t part with them unless some drastic occurs.
All of this revolves around Uber, and if some city legal situation can develop where Uber is destroyed in some way. Same story in all of the major US cities. People left holding the Medallions are holding worthless property now.
You make a good point about the lousy value now in NY City over the stupid taxi-medallions. In 2005, before Uber, the medallion was in the range of $350,000 for each single one. Five years later, they were nearing $600,000 each.
Now? $120,000 to $150,000. I doubt if any bank would go and give you a 5-million dollar loan based on your ownership of sixty of these. I could see them sinking below $50,000 in the next decade.
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Taxi medallions are a beautiful example of there free market destroying a government rigged market. The government limited the number of medallions no doubt as political payoff to the large cab companies. They deliberately constrained the number of cabs below what the market needed artificially driving up demand for medallions along with the cost to then bid on a medallion.
Then along game Uber doing a compete end-run around the rigged system and overnight the medallions achieve their actual market value of zero dollars instead of a rigged value.
On a side note most taxicab drivers have demeanors and attitudes like a dehydrated snail. Ubers are much more friendly for the most part.
Where was he supposed to lead them, if no crimes had been committed?
DUH!
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