Yoseph Raja has sued his estranged wife Zohal Azimi Raja, claiming she sabotaged their cookie business and looted its accounts.
Raja, 31, filed the Manhattan Supreme Court suit Thursday against Azimi, 30, as their marriage collapses and their Thin Cookies brand faces collapse alongside it. The couple built the venture from a 2021 home kitchen operation into two stores — one in Hicksville, Long Island, opened in 2023, and a Greenwich Village location on Bleecker Street that debuted in 2025. Raja serves as president and 50% owner, while his father Bashir Raja holds the other half as vice president, according to the filing.
The lawsuit alleges Azimi drained more than $100,000 from company accounts for personal use, commandeered a walk-in cooler stocked with dough inventory, and took the company delivery van. Raja claims these actions have left the businesses unable to pay staff, forced the temporary closure of the Greenwich Village shop, and put both locations at risk of eviction for unpaid rent. The filing also cites spoiled perishable inventory, damaged vendor relationships, and loss of goodwill.
Raja further alleges his wife used company funds to cover personal credit card expenses. The suit contends Azimi “is not and has never been a shareholder, officer, or director” of either store, and that her role was limited to recipe development, social media, and graphic design work.
The bitter legal battle follows seven months of unraveling matrimony. Azimi filed for divorce on Feb. 22, court records show. The couple share two young children — one born January 2023, the other October 2024 — and reside in Hicksville.
Before the rift, Azimi spoke openly about her baking heritage and the business’s origins. Her father runs a Middle Eastern bakery in Queens, and she grew up immersed in the craft alongside three sisters.
“I’m the friend who people always ask to bake a cake,” Azimi said in a prior interview. “When we did a small business at home, I just thought it would be a small business. Once it started getting bigger and the wholesale picked up, I started thinking of brick and mortar.”
She traced the signature recipe to her husband’s specific craving. Yoseph, a pharmacist by training, complained that thin cookies were always too crunchy for his taste. Azimi experimented until she landed on a thin, chewy formula that clicked.
“COVID gave me more time because I started working from home,” she explained. “It’s just in my blood, I was always around it. I grew up with three sisters, and I was the baker.”
The product line includes snickerdoodles, double chocolate, white chocolate with macadamia nuts, and coconut varieties, priced at $7 for six cookies, $13 for a dozen, and $25 for two dozen. Their Instagram following reached 53,000 as the brand gained traction.
“My husband was my taste tester,” Azimi told media outlets during the business’s ascent.
Raja is seeking unspecified damages in the suit, plus the return of the van. Attorney Ayat Masoud did not respond to a request for comment. Azimi declined to comment, stating she had not seen the lawsuit. Raja could not be reached.