New York Post: Man who faked being wheelchair-bound drops two lawsuits after Post exposé

By: Julia Marsh

Take a hike!

The Queens man who The Post revealed could walk without a wheelchair — after he sued Big Apple businesses for millions over their lack of handicapped access — is facing fraud allegations by the companies and has already agreed to drop two cases.

Serial litigant Arik Matatov’s lawyer dropped two $5 million suits against luxury Soho retailers Christian Dior and Herno in the past few weeks.

And six other businesses are asking judges to toss their suits, citing The Post’s expose.

The Pino wine bar on East 33rd Street also wants Matatov and his lawyer, Jeffrey Neiman, fined up to $10,000 for making false representation to the court about the plaintiff’s disability.

“Documentary evidence shows that the plaintiff is not wheelchair bound as he claims, but is able to ambulate on his own and has submitted false and misleading statements about his alleged disability for monetary gain,” Pino’s lawyer, Ryan Brownyard, writes in court papers.

“See Exhibit ‘B’ herein and news articles from The New York Post concerning the plaintiff,” Brownyard adds.

Pomodoro Ristorante & Pizzeria on Spring Street is seeking the same punitive fine against the pair.

A lawyer for another business, the shirt company UNTUCKit on Prince Street, says Neiman insisted that his client had an unspecified “legal disability” but that he “can walk short distances.”

That admission “renders patently false the allegations in the complaint that plaintiff’s disability ‘requires him to use a wheelchair,’ and that he ‘was unable to enter’ UNTUCKit’s store up a single step,” says company lawyer Jared Kagan in court papers.

Over the past year, Matatov, 24, has been making $50,000 demands of dozens of Manhattan businesses that aren’t wheelchair accessible and pocketing the cash — or suing them for millions if they don’t cough it up.

He filed 50 disability discrimination claims in Manhattan Supreme Court this year.

His lawyer did not return messages.

Tom Stebbins, director of the Lawsuit Reform Alliance of New York, called Matatov’s lawsuits a “waste of already scare court resources” and urged government officials to “work to protect businesses from serial plaintiffs and their attorneys who are more interested in dollars than access.”