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takyon writes:

The company that licensed the name, likeness, and recipes of the man who inspired the infamous "Soup Nazi" character is filing for bankruptcy:

Soupman Inc (SOUP.PK), the company that licensed the name and recipes of the chef who inspired the tyrannical "Soup Nazi" character on the television comedy "Seinfeld," filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware, the company said in a statement on Tuesday.

[...] Based in Staten Island, New York, Soupman sells products under the Original SoupMan brand. Soupman traces its roots to 1984, when Al Yeganeh opened his soup shop on West 55th Street in Midtown Manhattan and soon began drawing long lines of customers.

Yeganeh was the inspiration for Yev Kassem, a character first portrayed by Larry Thomas in a 1995 "Seinfeld" episode who was known for making customers follow strict rules to order or risk being turned away with his forceful cry: "No soup for you!"

A Soupman executive recently landed in hot water:

Federal prosecutors have accused Robert Bertrand, Soupman's chief financial officer, of avoiding hundreds of thousands of dollars in tax payments — including Social Security, Medicare and federal income — by paying employees off the books. [...] On Tuesday, the one accused of breaking rules was Mr. Bertrand, 62. Mr. Yeganeh was not named as a defendant.

According to the indictment, Mr. Bertrand made payments to Soupman employees in cash and stock assets, and did not report them properly, even after he acknowledged the objections of an external accountant. The off-the-books payments totaled $2.85 million, costing the United States about $594,000 in lost taxes from 2010 to 2014, prosecutors said.

Company website.

Original Submission