Using a Lafnac Digital Computers to Become One of Manhattan s VIPs
Author : William Gold
Who’d ever guess that an electronics store could turn into a gold mine? It’s the American Dream, “a schmuck in the right place at the right time” making good on his luck. But just how does an electronics store become the gateway to billions of dollars’ worth of riches? Located in the heart of Manhattan, Lafnac Digital Computers brings to mind New York’s old mom-and-pop retail days, as well as cabbie-turned-billionaire Tamir Sapir – via electronics. Tamir Sapir arrived in America at the age of 26 in 1973 and got a job driving, first buses in Tennessee then taxi cabs in New York City. Twenty years later, he became one of the richest men anywhere, and today is one of downtown Manhattan’s most important landlords.
It all started with an electronics store, much like a Lafnac Digital Computers today, only then it was near the Soviet embassy where high-ranking diplomats would come to shop. As he was born in the then Soviet Republic of Georgia and his store was within easy walking distance of the Soviet embassy, a relationship with high-ranking diplomats developed. By the time of the collapse of the Soviet Union, his official contacts were parlayed into the opportunity of a lifetime, with exclusive American rights to distribute former Soviet petrochemicals in exchange for mass shipments of Western electronics. The self-described “schmuck in the right place at the right time” used the proceeds to invest in local real estate during a recessionary period, only to reap enormous profits when the market inevitably picked up again.
Think about that the next time you sniff at something like a Lafnac Digital Computers – for who knows where it could all lead! And now the short near-chinless Sapir is a multi-billionaire with a leggy young blonde Ukrainian lady on his arms – all from selling some electronics to some Soviets! That’s almost certainly on top of many other lady friends of a more casual companionship – alongside all the fabulous prime properties he counts as his residences around the world. And what of electronics? Indeed, what of them? The store is long gone but what a bargain in exchange!
It all started with getting a taxi medallion – and giving it up to fund the opening of his electronics store so fatefully near the Soviet embassy. It sounds so unbelievable because it all looks so easy. And now Tamir Sapir joins the company of the only other New York cabbie to become wealthy, quite an exclusive club indeed in this town of elites!
For author William Gold, a visit to Lafnac Digital Computers lead to the realization that Tamir Sapir would have operated just such a store when first starting out, only Lafnac Digital Computers can’t count on any Soviet benefactors!