By Matthew Russell Lee
SDNY COURTHOUSE, April 3 – The day after U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York Judge Ronnie Abrams sentenced bottle recycling fraudster Eldar Rakhamimov to 15 months in a courtroom half filled with the defendant's family and employees, on April 3 Judge Abrams in an empty courtroom made final preparations for a one or two day trial about employment conditions in a Chinese restaurant. She told the litigants to share the costs of interpretation and that they will not need to ask permission to approach a witness to refresh their recollection. Two of the defendants no longer work at the restaurant; one of the lawyers cannot be contacted on the phone number he has listed in ECF. But it is a Federal case; there are alleged violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act, (FLSA) 29 U.S.C. § 201 et seq.. And so it moves to trial. The case is Wang v. Happy Hot Hunan Restaurant, Inc., et. al., 17-cv-2013(RA)(JLC).
On April 2, Eldar Rakhamimov appeared for sentencing for inflating the number of Pepsi and Canada Dry bottles returned through his business before Judge Abram; he had many of his employees and family members with him. His lawyer Tony Mirvis pointed them out, arguing that if not sentenced to jail he couldpay back the $700,000 restitution faster. But half of the debt is to the State of New York; recently Judge Abrams rejected just such has argument from a medical software company executive on tax fraud. Here, Judge Abrams went below the 37 to 46 month guideline sentence, to 15 months with two years of supervised released - the books of his recycling company will be open - and a $15,000 fine.Two of his employees were asked to take off their caps by the Court Security Officers. The prosecutor said, It would not be a bad thing if his company just fell apart. The case is US v. Eldar Rakhamimov, 18 – CR – 72 (RA).
