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No Tax For You! 'Soup Nazi' Exec Accused of Owing Feds $500K

Soupman CFO Robert Bertrand allegedly avoided paying more than half a million dollars in federal taxes.

DOWNTOWN BROOKLYN — Prosecutors have accused a “Soup Nazi” executive of telling the federal government: “No tax for you!”

Robert Bertrand — the chief financial officer of Soupman, a restaurant chain made famous on "Seinfeld" — allegedly failed to fork over more than half a million dollars in Social Security, Medicare and federal taxes by paying employees off the books, the U.S. Attorney’s office in Brooklyn announced Tuesday.

Bertrand, 62, stands accused of paying his employees more that $2.8 million in cash and stocks between 2010 and 2014, which allowed him to skip out on paying $593,971.52 in taxes to the federal government, according to prosecutors.

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Bertrand ignored an external auditor's warning in 2012 that he need to report employee payments to the IRS, prosecutors said.

The Soupman CFO was indicted on 20 counts of tax evasion charges in Brooklyn federal court Tuesday afternoon where he pleaded not guilty, the New York Times reported.

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The Staten Island-based soup company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Soupman became a household name in 1995 when the television show “Seinfeld” aired its episode about an extremely strict chef who withheld soup to customers with the much repeated catchphrase, "No soup for you."


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