Accused fraudster Dan “Busted Chef” Kaufman may have duped some area notables in addition to the 24 alleged victims authorities claim were robbed of a combined $25,000 by his “double dipping” their credit cards.
The Brooklyn Paper was first duped by the Busted Chef in April 2007 when it identified Kaufman by what could be one of many aliases, “Chef Coffee”. This year, after many Busy Chef ads ran in the paper and on its website, a quote from Kaufman is featured in Brooklyn Paper’s media kit. (PDF here)
The Brooklyn Heights Association was also not immune to the Kaufman Kool-Aid. It wrote a fawning piece about Kaufman in its Fall 2007 newsletter. The Busted Chef told the BHA that “our mission is to be a good neighbor”. The BHA’s Judy Stanton tells the New York Post today that she was “really surprised” by Kaufman’s alleged deeds.
In the interest of “full disclosure”: Busy Chef briefly purchased a small amount of advertising on BHB in 2007. Homer Fink filled in as a columnist for the Brooklyn Paper last year.