An alleged scammer has been accused of offering food vendors access to a city permit, then vanishing with their money — amounting to hundreds of thousands of dollars stolen.
The predatory scheme takes advantage of a decades-old grey market.
Here’s how the racket is said to work: new food vendors, often vulnerable immigrants desperate for a way to sell their wares legally, are approached by a man offering to lease them one of the scarce and highly sought-after city permits that would help them authenticate their small business. Then, after they fork over the cash, he vanishes…