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Celebrity Chef Gordon Ramsay Held At Gunpoint By Gangsters

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Jan 032011

Celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay was doused in gasoline and held at gunpoint as he tried to uncover the dark world of illegal shark fin trading for a new TV show.

The Hell’s Kitchen star was shooting scenes for a British program Big Fish Fight when he confronted gangsters in Costa Rica who had slaughtered thousands of sharks to sell their sought-after fins.

But Ramsay was left terrified when the gang kept their guns trained on him and his TV crew before throwing fuel over him. He was later advised by local police to flee the country for his own safety.

The chef tells Britain’s Daily Mail, “It’s a multibillion-dollar industry, completely unregulated. We traced some of the biggest culprits to Costa Rica. These gangs operate from places like forts, with barbed-wire and gun towers.

“At one, I managed to shake off the people keeping us away, ran up some stairs to a rooftop and looked down to see thousands of fins, drying on rooftops for as far as the eye could see. When I got back downstairs, they tipped a barrel of petrol over me.

“Back at the wharf, there were people pointing rifles at us to stop us filming. A van pulled up and these seedy characters made us stand against a wall. The police came and advised us to leave the country. They said, ‘If you set one foot in there, they’ll shoot you.’”

The Gordon Ramsay Deadbeat Claims Continue

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May 172010

Another New York City restaurant-business supplier has come forward to accuse super-chef Gordon Ramsay of not paying his bills.

Last week, it was reported that the “Hell’s Kitchen” star is being sued by two wine distributors who claim he stiffed them on bills of about $40,000 each. Now, Michael Braunschweiger, owner of the Bronx-based meat purveyor Endicott Meats, is saying that Ramsay has gone AWOL on a bill for a cool $190,000.

“Just like with the wine guys, he basically stopped responding to me in November,” says Braunschweiger, who sells to Zabar’s and Dean & DeLuca.
“He racked up this enormous bill for all sorts of things for his restaurant at the London/NYC Hotel. Tenderloins, duck breasts, racks of lamb, sweetbreads, bacon . . . Then he skipped out on the bill and doesn’t answer calls.”

Braunschweiger, who says he plans to sue, adds, “For a guy who goes on TV and tells people how they should be running their business, maybe he should first learn how to run his own. It seems like he spends more time on TV and scouring for women, or whatever it is he does these days.”

Ramsay, who is married, came under fire for allegedly fooling around with at least three other women in 2008, although he denied the stories.

Says Braunschweiger: “This is the third generation we’ve been in business. We’ve been around since 1929, and we’ve never had a situation like this. He made a big show of saying that we would get paid quickly and easily because we were dealing with a hotel in New York, and not his own business in England, but that obviously wasn’t the case.”

Ramsay’s reps at William Morris Endeavor didn’t respond to our requests for comment.

More Tax Trouble For Gordon Ramsay

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Mar 142010

British celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay has been named and shamed by officials in New York who have listed him among the city’s worst “delinquent tax payers.”

Ramsay’s business empire has suffered in the recent economic downturn and in 2009 he was advised to file for bankruptcy because of his spiralling money issues,

The TV star managed to stave off the debt-collectors momentarily by pumping $8 million of his own money into his businesses in a last ditch bid to keep afloat, but has subsequently been hit with a series of bills and legal issues.

Late last year British tax officials ordered the TV star to pay off a series of outstanding debts in relation to two of his restaurants in London, and he was also hit with an allegedly unpaid bill from a U.S. dairy company in relation to his Manhattan eaterie.

Now tax officials in New York are said to be chasing the chef for $250,000 after he allegedly fell behind with payments.

His U.S. company, Gordon Ramsay New York, has also been listed by the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance (DTF) as among the Big Apple’s top 250 business “delinquent tax payers.”

A DTF spokesperson says, “New York loses billions of dollars each year in tax revenues owed, but not collected, known as the tax gap. We aggressively address the tax gap.”

A rep for Ramsay’s company adds, “There is an amount still outstanding to the New York State regarding Sales Tax. We are negotiating through our New York advisors to discharge this debt.”

Gordon Ramsay’s Slut Is Writing A Book

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Aug 232009

The big-mouthed British blonde who claimed last year she had a seven-year affair with globe-trotting superchef and TV star Gordon Ramsay is now writing, blogging and talking about another alleged dalliance — but the man in question is fighting back with a team of lawyers.

Sarah Symonds is the author of “Having an Affair? A Handbook for the Other Woman,” and advises women for $250 an hour on how to handle their cheating men.

Symonds claims to have had a torrid affair with a married marketing executive 23 years her senior, a father of two young children, “who crushed my heart,” she said — and she’s named him on her blog.

“He pursued me like a heat-seeking missile. I can say we were obsessed with each other . . . I believed the spectacular picture he painted to me of a life together, as we all do,” Symonds said. “A house in the Hamptons he said was in the cards for us. I nearly wanted to take my own life when he so cruelly pulled that from me.”

The temptress claims she often traveled with her lover on his business trips. “He would make me wear hats and glasses as disguises on the plane if his colleagues were on the same plane,” she said.

“I have kept Mr. X a well-guarded secret until now. But I almost feel I have to exorcise him out of my life for the complete pain he caused me. Like I have to bury him in my mind by coming clean with the story.”

Symonds gladly showed us a copy of the letter she got from Mr. X’s lawyer stating that her outspokenness “would . . . constitute a breach of the written [confidentiality] agreement dated Aug. 25, 2005,” executed by both her and Mr. X.

She said, “I only date single men now,” and vows to be married next year by her 40th birthday, which will lead to her second book, “From Mistress to Mrs.”

(source)