Results tagged “bribe”

If you hate waiting for a cab at the airport, then imagine how the cab drivers feel, waiting hours at a time in a holding pen before being allowed to pick up passengers at a terminal. Surely there is some way to match up the waiting passenger with the waiting taxi. No? Anyway, the Daily News reports that some drivers were paying their way to the front of the line. All whilst passengers just stood there like suckers, not bribing a soul in their own line.

The Post reports that at least six Department of Buildings employees "will be arrested later this month, along with about two dozen Luchese crime-family captains, soldiers and associates." Ooh, another mob sweep. Apparently the Buildings inspectors, two of whom are "full-blown Luchese associates," "were videotaped taking bribes at construction sites, and some were seen dealing cocaine and prescription pills while on duty" and "lined their pockets by ignoring violations or expediting construction and building work permits." And the revelations emerged from a 2007 case in NJ, where some members of the Luchese crime family "ran a staggering $2 billion-a-year gambling operation and supplied drugs and cellphones to Bloods gang members in state prisons." Guess the DOB's new code of conduct is coming in handy.

What can't an iPod Nano get you these days? First the device was used barter-style for cab fare (albeit this was a forced barter), and now the BellTel Lofts in Brooklyn are using the $140 gadgets as bribes. The NY Times reports that Ilan Bracha of the Bracha Group at Prudential Douglas Elliman have set a goal to lure at least 300 top-producing Manhattan brokers over to the property with a "BellTel Lofts-branded iPod Nano in a custom-made and branded leather-bound portfolio containing video footage, images and updates” on the project. All they have to do to claim their prize made the trip over the bridge for a private tour of the building's units; so far there have been 180 takers, and 20 have been from Brooklyn. That's right, even in-borough brokers can take one home if "they bring in five groups of buyers" with to BellTel with them. If Apples aren't the new currency, they're certainly the new dangling carrots.

Marilyn Dorato, president of the Greenwich Village Block Association and next-door neighbor of Waverly Inn, used to be a vocal critic of the celebrity haunt because of all the idling limos, paparazzi and all-around obstreperousness erupting from the exclusive restaurant. But some locals who still hate the place say she changed her tune once co-owner Graydon Carter hooked her up with a regular table and put her photo in his magazine, a little publication called Vanity Fair. Of course, Dorato insists it isn't the star treatment that won her over, but the security firm hired by Carter to control the limo traffic, and the new late morning garbage pick-up time. She tells the Post, "I'm treated very well, but I don't think it's a payoff." Obviously not! Note to Graydon: We too want to destroy the Waverly Inn, and have no dinner plans tonight.

It wouldn't be Fashion Week without a little bit of scandal, and this week a state government employee nearly made runway roadkill out of designer Marc Jacobs.