New York Attorney General Letitia James demanded $810 million from New York City on Thursday, accusing the city’s taxi regulator of playing a role in fraudulently inflating the value of taxi medallions, the Wall Street Journal reported. In a formal legal claim sent to the city’s comptroller, James said that the city made hundreds of millions of dollars marketing and auctioning thousands of medallions while helping to keep values artificially high. A medallion is a metal shield that serves as the city’s license to pick up street hails across the city. When medallion values plunged to less than $200,000 from a high of more than $1 million several years ago, many medallion owners filed for bankruptcy. Many drivers still struggle today. There are about 13,500 such medallions in New York City. James gave notice that she would sue the city if it didn’t meet her demands within 30 days. She said that the funds would pay for restitution and damages to medallion owners. (Subscription required.)
