Studio 54 Founder Ian Schrager Gets Pardon From Obama on Tax Charge
Image by Getty Images
More than three decades after he ran afoul of his federal taxes, New York City real estate developer Ian Schrager is receiving a pardon from outgoing President Barack Obama.
Schrager, the founder of Manhattan’s famous Studio 54 nightclub, served almost two years in federal prison after being judged guilty on charges of tax evasion back in 1980.
The presidential action has no practical impact on Schrager, who also had to pay $20,000 in restitution.
Schrager grew up in a Jewish family in Brooklyn before he and business partner Steve Rubell started Studio 54, which defined urban cool in the late ‘70’s and early ‘80’s. President-elect Donald Trump was a frequent visitor to the nightclub in its heyday.
He’s up to more boring stuff today, currently heading the Ian Schrager Company, which has developed a number of city hotels since its inception a decade ago and is currently building a new complex of condominiums on Leroy Street in the West Village.
Contact Daniel J. Solomon at [email protected] or on Twitter @DanielJSolomon
Why I became the Forward’s editor-in-chief
You are surely a friend of the Forward if you’re reading this. And so it’s with excitement and awe — of all that the Forward is, was, and will be — that I introduce myself to you as the Forward’s newest editor-in-chief.
And what a time to step into the leadership of this storied Jewish institution! For 129 years, the Forward has shaped and told the American Jewish story. I’m stepping in at an intense time for Jews the world over. We urgently need the Forward’s courageous, unflinching journalism — not only as a source of reliable information, but to provide inspiration, healing and hope.
— Alyssa Katz, editor-in-chief
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
