This tax case has now been consomme-ted.
“Soup Nazi” exec Robert Bertrand was sentenced to nine months in a federal lockup Thursday, his penalty for a nearly $600,000 tax-evasion scheme involving the Staten Island-based chain made famous by “Seinfeld.”
“I did make a mistake and I am remorseful for it,” Bertrand told a Brooklyn federal judge at his sentencing.
“I’ve embarrassed myself, my family,” said Bertrand, who admittedly failed to collect taxes on more than $2.8 million in cash and, er, stock compensation between 2010 and 2014.
Bertrand ran the chain of “Soupman” shops, whose expansion was inspired the famous 1995 “Soup Nazi” episode of Seinfeld, with its enduring catch-phrase “No soup for you!”
The ”Seinfeld” bit was itself inspired by sour-tempered real-life Midtown restaurateur Ali “Al” Yeganeh, who inspired the character portrayed on the sitcom by Larry Thomas. Yeganeh then capitalized on his fame by licensing his likeness and recipes. But the chain filed for bankruptcy protection in June 2017.
Bertrand, of Norwalk, Conn., said in court Thursday that he has resorted to driving for Uber since his arrest on the tax scam a year ago; he still must pay the feds $78,515 in back taxes.
“This was not a simple fraud,” Judge Pamela Chen told him. “It is serious.
“It is also not victimless,” she added. “It’s obvious that when people don’t pay their taxes, the victims are all of us.”
But Bertrand’s lawyer, Michael Weil, insisted that his client was not motivated by greed.
“He did it to keep the company afloat,” and to pay his employees, he said of his client’s tax shenanigans.