On The Waterfront

It should come as no surprise that many of the city’s biggest restauranteurs have suspicious connections. Why, for example, did Giuseppe Cipriani back out of a $300 million project to develop Manhattan’s Pier 57? New York Magazine speculates:

Earlier this year, after submitting the forms, Cipriani received notice that before his application could be approved, city investigators wanted to take a sworn deposition about $120,000 he allegedly gave to a Gambino turncoat in 1999 to settle a labor dispute at Rockefeller Center’s Rainbow Room, which he operates. Cipriani has denied making the mob payment. In addition, the city informed him that DOI investigators would be joined by an agent from the FBI and NYPD detectives, also seeking to ask him about alleged payments made to the crime family, among other matters. Cipriani decided to bail.