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BROOKLYN WEEKLY, MARCH 3, 2019
Top chef charged for culinary caper
Boro cook indicted for allegedly stealing thousands from Bay Ridge restaurateurs
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BY JULIANNE MCSHANE
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This chef is cooked.
A Bay Ridge cook once lauded
as one of the borough’s top chefs
faces up to seven years in prison
for allegedly posing as a phony
consultant and stealing thousands
from the owners of a restaurant
in his neighborhood.
Prosecutors slapped 36-yearold
Vincent Tropepe — whom Edible
Magazine once dubbed the
“American-born Gordon Ramsay”
— with charges including seconddegree
criminal possession of a
forged instrument, fi rst-degree
falsifying business records, and
third-degree grand larceny as part
of a 41–count indictment, Brooklyn’s
top prosecutor announced on
Feb. 22.
“The victims in this case
worked hard to make their restaurant
a success and this defendant,
claiming he could help them, allegedly
lied and stole their hardearned
money instead,” said Eric
Gonzalez.
Tropepe — who previously
worked as a personal chef for celebrities
including Regis Philbin,
P. Diddy, and former President
Clinton — scammed the owners
of Fifth Avenue’s Yemen Café out
of more than $14,000 while working
as a so-called consultant, by
creating fake violations and fabricating
the accompanying fi nes,
according to prosecutors.
Prosecutors alleged the defendant
attempted to win his victims’
trust by claiming he fought to
lower the fi nes with offi cials in the
Offi ce of Administrative Trials
and Hearings, which determines
fi nancial penalties for violations
doled out by the Department of
Health and other city agencies.
The chef began his alleged
scheme last July, when he demanded
the restaurant owners
pay a $2,570 fi ne issued by the offi
ce, according to the district attorney.
And a month later, he
asked the owners to reimburse
him for $11,650, money Tropepe
claimed he paid to the offi ce on
the victims’ behalf to cover another
fi ne, alleged Gonzalez, who
said the defendant used fraudulent
paperwork outlining the
fi nes to support his bogus claims.
The restaurateurs, who also
own a Downtown location of their
café, later contacted the Offi ce of
Administrative Trials and Hearings
with suspicions about the
fi nes’ legitimacy. And agency offi -
cials deemed Tropepe’s fi nancial
penalties and their supporting
documents fake, before reporting
the incident to the city’s Department
of Investigation, according
to the district attorney.
Tropepe, meanwhile, allegedly
tried to dupe his victims once
more, presenting them with more
fraudulent paperwork and fake
fi nes last December, which they
did not pay, prosecutors said.
City records show the eatery’s
owners paid $1,000 for two 2014 violations,
for construction work and
a failure to maintain the building’s
code. And the restaurant has
two open violations with the Department
of Buildings, for a lowpressure
boiler and construction
work dating back to 2009, according
to the records.
Tropepe started his consulting
scheme in 2014, to fi ght what
he called the city’s unfair healthcodes
and fi nes, which he called
a burden on small-business owners.
“I feel that there is no foundation
to what is being written during
some inspections,” Tropepe
told this newspaper at the time.
The chef also claimed he
helped dismiss $300,000 worth of
fi nes issued to local restaurateurs
in 2013, adding that he additionally
helped secure about $110,000
in refunds to business owners.
Tropepe, who owned and operated
the French bistro Saint Germain
in Bay Ridge between 2011
and 2012, is due back in court
on April 17, the district attorney
said.
IN HOT WATER: Chef Vincent Tropepe, seen here showing off pastries at the
opening of his consulting business. File photo by Elizabeth Graham
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