Stew-pid scam
Exec at ‘Soup Nazi’ company faces tax-hiding rap
NO TAXES for you!
The feds are bringing a tax evasion case against the top financial executive at the soup-slinging company inspired by Jerry Seinfeld’s infamous “Soup Nazi.”
Brooklyn federal prosecutors said Tuesday that Robert Bertrand, the chief financial officer of Soupman, Inc., paid employees $2.85 million in unreported cash and stock awards from 2010 to 2014.
As a result, the government got stiffed on taxes for Medicare and Social Security. The total tax loss to Uncle Sam was almost $600,000, according to prosecutors.
Soupman, which is based on Staten Island, licenses the name and recipes of Al Yeganeh, the real-life inspiration for the lunchtime autocrat spoofed in the “Seinfeld” TV series who would bully slow customers and bark, “No soup for you!”
The company cooks up 47 soups — from beef barley to lobster bisque to veal goulash, according to its website. Its business includes sales to national grocery store chains.
The 20-count indictment unsealed Tuesday said a portion of the salaries was reported — but another portion was not.
The company’s independent auditor told Bertrand in 2012 that it hadn’t paid the required taxes. Still, Bertrand allegedly failed to file amended tax returns.
The company fired the auditor and hired a new one in 2013, according to the indictment.
Bertrand, 62, of Norwalk, Conn., faces up to five years in prison.
“Tax crimes like those alleged in the indictment hurt every American citizen,” said acting Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Bridget Rohde, noting that the United States was “fleeced out of more than half a million dollars through the defendant’s corporate misdeeds.”
Bertrand pleaded not guilty and was released on a $50,000 bond. The exec had an appointed attorney for the arraignment, which caused Magistrate Judge Marilyn Go to raise an eyebrow.
Looking at paperwork on his financials, Go questioned whether Bertrand would qualify for a public defender. Bertrand “obviously had a successful professional career” and a “significant monthly income,” Go said. She let him have the appointed attorney to get through the arraignment.
Bertrand has been with Seinfeldinspired soup spinoffs for years. He joined Soup Kitchen International in 2004, according to the Soupman website. When Soup Kitchen International went bankrupt, a Soupman company subsidiary got its assets.
Outside the courtroom, Bertrand said he had no comment. The Soupman company did not respond to a request for comment.