Gothamist
A non-profit newsroom, powered by WNYC.
Gothamist
Listen Live
News
Brooklyn Paper Denies Ignoring Early Leads on Busy Chef Fraud Scandal
By
John Del Signore
Published Jul 28, 2008
Modified Jul 29, 2008
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
Never miss a story
Email address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .
By
John Del Signore
Published Jul 28, 2008
Modified Jul 29, 2008
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
We rely on your support to make local news available to all
Make your contribution now and help Gothamist thrive in 2026. Donate today
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Now that Busy Chef co-owner Dan Kaufman has been very publicly nabbed for allegedly stealing credit card information from his customers, other people who’ve been burned by the suspected Brooklyn Heights con man in Vermont and Boston have come forward. But Homer Fink at Brooklyn Heights blog, in a long post published Friday, says these former associates have been warning the world about Kaufman for some time now. And he blames the Brooklyn Paper and other media outlets for ignoring the story for too long:
Earlier in 2007, we thought it would be in the public interest to share the information we had with “professionals” who we felt would be better equipped to investigate and present the story. After all, we were a bunch of BLOGGERS doing this for fun and to meet our neighbors, not Woodward and Bernstein. We thought, the Mainstream Media would know how to handle a potentially juicy story like this, especially if it meant saving the citizens of Brooklyn Heights from becoming victims of fraud. Right? Not so much.
Fink goes on to recall his failed story pitch to Brooklyn Paper editor-in-chief Gersh Kuntzman, and hint that the allegations were ignored because “Busy Chef’s advertising was extremely prominent in the online and print editions of the Brooklyn Paper. Kaufman was, until his arrest, featured in the paper’s marketing materials.”
Kuntzman responds: “We did look into these allegations; there was a widely sent email when Busy Chef first opened and we pursued it. But there were no formal complaints filed in Boston or Vermont and no one was willing to speak to us on the record. I am a fan of Homer’s blog but his standard of what he can publish is a little lower; we can’t just print rumors. And his suggestion that our coverage was based on advertising is absolutely erroneous.”
UPDATE: And now Fink has responded to Gersh's response on Brooklyn Heights Blog:
This isn’t the first time a Kaufman business has had trouble, according to court papers. In either late 2006 or 2007, Kaufman set up a trendy wine bar in South Boston, where he did not pay more than $40,000 rent, according to a landlord who sued Kaufman to recoup those losses. “We’ve never gotten a dime out of him. We got possession of the premises but that’s it,” the landlord’s lawyer, James Rudser, told The Brooklyn Paper. “He never puts anything in his name, he knows what he’s doing in terms of the scamming.”
At the time of our convo (which Gersh represents accurately as well as his ultimate reason for not publishing) - there was a pending suit in Suffolk County Mass. against Kaufman to which the above paragraph refers. It’s public record, go ahead look it up.
As for a blog’s standards being lower than a newspaper’s I submit to you: http://www.brooklynpaper.com/stories/29/39/29_39gyllenhaal.html
and this: http://youtube.com/watch?v=N8CjyH8zB_g
but who could forget the NAZIS ARE BEHIND ATLANTIC YARDS story -
http://www.brooklynpaper.com/stories/30/3/30_03blood_money.htmlYes, we bloggers live in the gutter. Those newspaper guys are so classy.
Click through to Brooklyn Heights Blog and read the comments for Gersh's response to Fink's response to Gersh!
Tagged
brooklyn heights blog
brooklyn paper
busy chef
Dan Kaufman
John Del Signore
Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.
Read more
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
MORE news
Forest Hills Stadium can keep its concerts under deal with neighbors
Neighbors had complained of traffic and loud concerts for years.
By
Ryan Kost
Published Oct 22, 2026 at 2:49 p.m. ET
NYC Council to grill Mamdani officials on collapsed Hunts Point Produce Market deal
Council Speaker Julie Menin called the $650 million plan "mission critical."
By
Elizabeth Kim
News
NYC Council to grill Mamdani officials on collapsed Hunts Point Produce Market deal
Council Speaker Julie Menin called the $650 million plan "mission critical."
By
Elizabeth Kim
NYPD arrests 17-year-old in fatal Midtown subway platform shooting
By
Charles Lane
Ex-Adams aide accused of pocketing kickbacks from community program funds
By
Samantha Max
MTA to begin 6-year project to upgrade signal tech on A and C lines in Brooklyn and Queens
By
Ramsey Khalifeh
Never miss a story
Catch up on the most important headlines with a roundup of essential NYC stories, delivered to your inbox daily.
Sign upEmail address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .