Who’d ever have suspected that an electronics store could end up a gold mine? It’s the American Dream, “a schmuck in the right place at the right time” making good on his luck. But precisely how does an electronics store become the the gateway of billions of dollars’ in riches? Located in the middle 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 the United States when he was 26, in the year 1973, and got a gig driving, first buses in Tennessee and then taxi cabs in New York City. Twenty years later, he became one of the richest men anywhere, and is now among downtown Manhattan’s most influential landlords.

It all began with an electronics store, very much like a Lafnac Digital Computers today, only then it was close to the Soviet embassy where important diplomats would go 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 turned into the fortune of a lifetime, with exclusive American rights to distribute former Soviet petrochemicals in exchange for gigantic shipments of Western electronics. The self-described “schmuck in the right place at the right time” used the revenue to purchase local real estate at a recessionary time, only to enjoy enormous profits as the market inevitably shot up again.

Ponder that the next time you dismiss anything like a Lafnac Digital Computers – for who knows where it will all lead! And today 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 together with quite a few other lady friends of a more casual companionship – alongside each of the fantastic prime properties he counts as his residences around the world. And what about electronics? Indeed, what of them? The store is long gone but what a bargain in exchange!

All this began with getting a taxi medallion – and using it to pay for 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!