The trustee liquidating part of New York taxi mogul Evgeny “Gene” Freidman’s holdings has found a bidder offering $7.7 million ahead of a planned auction to help repay former lender Citibank, the Wall Street Journal reported. Bankruptcy trustee Greg Messer said in court papers that a stalking horse, or lead, bidder had offered $167,500 for each of 46 taxi medallions owned by Freidman’s companies that have been stranded in the two-year-old bankruptcy case. The stalking-horse offer, which requires bankruptcy court approval, would put a floor under the medallions’ price at a public auction scheduled to take place Sept. 18 in East Elmhurst, N.Y. Details about the bidder, MGPE Inc., weren’t available in court papers. Bankruptcy Judge Carla Craig has scheduled a Sept. 25 hearing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Brooklyn to consider the auction results.
