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- BUSINESS, Page 55Business NotesLITIGATIONThe Mismatch Maker
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- "We are going to find the one man who is absolutely right
- for you," declares Helena Amram in ads touting her chain of
- matchmaking services. But the high-profile doyenne of dating has
- a date of her own -- in New York State's Supreme Court, where
- Attorney General Robert Abrams filed a suit last week against
- several of Amram's firms. The accusation: her clients paid
- wildly inflated prices for nightmarish nights on the town.
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- Aggrieved customers tell of dates who were overaged,
- overweight, underemployed and sometimes already married. One
- woman recalled an escort who had "dyed bright-orange hair,"
- while another said she was matched with "a man who had a
- criminal record." For such bottom-drawer Romeos, Amram allegedly
- charged anywhere from $1,250 to $20,000, far in excess of New
- York's $250 price limit on social-referral services. Amram's
- response: "I never break the law." The attorney general's
- lawsuit seeks restitution of any overcharges and an end to
- Amram's matchmaking in New York.
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