Banquet bon vivant Giuseppe Cipriani has turned over financial records to the Manhattan D.A.’s office as part of an investigation into his company’s income-tax filings, says his lawyer, Stanley Arkin. The investigation began last year after Cipriani’s ex-vice-president, Dennis Pappas, once called the “financial consigliere” for the Colombo crime family, was indicted on insurance-fraud charges. (He did jail time in the nineties for tax evasion and racketeering.) Prosecutors claim Pappas worked off the books for Cipriani in exchange for gifts, like use of an apartment and a black Humvee, and are now checking to see if other employees had similar under-the-table arrangements. “We’ve been cooperating,” Arkin says. “I like my client. He’s a good guy with a great business.”

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• Archive: “Intelligencer”
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