Developers Bribing DOB Inspectors? Never!
June 29, 2006 — Investigators arrested three Brooklyn men yesterday and charged them with trying to bribe a city building inspector. The arrests of the men, David Safir, Gennadiy Bronsteyn and Arkadi Shapiro, came after Mr. Safir offered a building inspector $3,000 to revoke a stop-work order on construction at a Brooklyn property he owned,…
June 29, 2006 — Investigators arrested three Brooklyn men yesterday and charged them with trying to bribe a city building inspector. The arrests of the men, David Safir, Gennadiy Bronsteyn and Arkadi Shapiro, came after Mr. Safir offered a building inspector $3,000 to revoke a stop-work order on construction at a Brooklyn property he owned, said Rose Gill Hearn, the city’s investigation commissioner. The Department of Investigation, which worked on the case with the Department of Buildings, said Mr. Safir then referred the inspector to Mr. Bronsteyn and Mr. Shapiro. The two men later offered the inspector $10,000 to erase citations for violations on a pair of adjoining properties they owned, investigators said.
3 Charged With Bribing Inspector [NY Times]
Harumph, five years ago, 3K was more than enough on a private home project. These kids today, what a sense of entitlement!
Sounds like Safir thinks he’s Tony Soprano. Oops.
“I’m shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!”
Claude Raines in “Casablanca”
A stripper would take a $500 bribe, but not a city official. They cost more.
i’ve heard stories of people getting away with $500 bribes before.
The DOB is a bureaucracy. They are always overworked and underpaid. However, they will deal with you fairly if you comply with their way of doing things. Hiring an experienced architect or expediter will speed things up a lot. These old-time people have been hanging out at the DOB for so long, that they know these DOB people on a personal basis. They won’t take bribes, but they will tell you what documents to provide, who to talk to, who is really responsible for your matter. If you only reply to DOB notices, you will wait for months to get anything done.
Throw these three and the DOB in jail. All parties are at fault. I agree though, $3K is kinda an insult in this market at this day & age 😉
I hope they throw these guys in jail for a few years, but I don’t blame them for trying. the buildings dept is so difficult to deal with people just get frustrated. its really the guys taking the bribes that should be caught
In case the have zoning issues they can now go to the BSA and file under hardship.
I am sure the BSA are sympethatic…