By KATI CORNELL
May 12, 2008
The wealthy businessman behind the technology that put credit-card machines in taxis is a closet child molester who bribed and bullied his stepdaughter into keeping quiet for a decade, a bombshell lawsuit alleges.
Amos Tamam, president and CEO of VeriFone Transportation Systems, is accused of abusing his stepdaughter Karren Miguel from 1995 until December 2006 - just six months before sealing a deal with the city's largest taxi leasing company.
Tamam, who lived with Miguel, her mom and two other kids in tony Great Neck, made sexual contact a condition for everything from school tuition and braces to a cell phone and a laptop computer.
Now 23, Miguel is telling her story for the first time.
"I want everyone to know his dirty little secret. He portrays himself as a clean, family man. That's not what he is," Miguel told The Post.
The lawsuit, filed in March by Miguel's attorneys, Joseph Tacopina and Rosemary Arnold, seeks unspecified damages from Tamam, 46, for sexual assault, battery and unlawful imprisonment.
Tamam could not be reached for comment.
