Who’d ever have guessed that an electronics store could come to be a gold mine? It’s the American Dream, “a schmuck in the right place at the right time” making good on his luck. But in what way does an electronics store get to be a gateway for billions of dollars’ of wealth? Located in the center of Manhattan, Lafnac Digital Computers brings to mind New York’s old mom-and-pop retail days, along with cabbie-turned-billionaire Tamir Sapir – via electronics. Tamir Sapir came to America when he was 26, in the year 1973, and got employment driving, first buses in Tennessee then taxi cabs in The Big Apple. Twenty years later, he became one of the wealthiest men anywhere, and is now among downtown Manhattan’s top property owners.
Everything started with an electronics store, comparable to a Lafnac Digital Computers today, only then it was by the Soviet embassy where prominent 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 these diplomats developed. By the time of the collapse of the Soviet Union, these official contacts were parlayed into the opportunity of a lifetime, with exclusive American rights to distribute former Soviet petrochemicals in return for gigantic shipments of Western electronics. The self-described “schmuck in the right place at the right time” used the receipts to invest in local realty at a recessionary period, only to reap enormous profits when the market inevitably shot up again.
Consider that the next time you scoff at a thing 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 definitely in addition to quite a few other lady friends of a more casual companionship – alongside the many fantastic prime properties he counts as his residences around the world. And what about electronics? Indeed, what about them? The store is long gone but what a bargain in exchange!
It all began with getting a taxi medallion – and selling it to finance the opening of his electronics store so fatefully close to 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!
