KEN KIRSCHENBAUM, ESQ
ALARM - SECURITY INDUSTRY LEGAL EMAIL NEWSLETTER / THE ALARM EXCHANGE
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Is it normal to pay bribes? / webinar registration – Miami building collapse  
July 18, 2022
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Comment on inflation and why RMR sells for a multiple from article on June 27, 2022
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Is it normal to pay bribes?
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Ken
          We've just begun selling alarm systems in the last year.  Our installation company has been installing them as subcontractors for 7 years.  We recently won a project and it went smoothly.  We sold ourselves short though and missed profit targets but still came out on top.  At the end of the job the superintendent asked us if we'd like to do another.  I let him know it'd have a revised price, and explained why.  He had his company award me the job within an hour.  Since then he has gone from gentle hinting to practically demanding a gift card for about $600. I told him I'd love to take him out to dinner but he said "A gift card would work fine."  He even had the nerve to ask one of my employees if they brought it.  Is this how the game is played?  
          Is this what I need to do?  I'm a Kentucky boy and this is a Chicago guy. You're a New York guy, enlighten me.  I definitely have enough profit to absorb that but it just seems icky and unethical.
  Andrew
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Response
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          Well Andrew, first let me assure you that Santa Clause is real.  And yes, I am from New York and I can tell you that $600 probably won’t cut it here.  A gift card?  Why don’t you ask this wanna-be wise guy if a check is OK.  Then when he actually accepts it you can send the cleared check to his employer. Of course don’t expect a thank you; you’ll probably be kicked off the job and don’t expect to get any future work. By the way, what's the difference between the gift card and taking the guy out to dinner?  
          On a more serious note, bribing your customer’s employees is wrong in many ways.  It presumes that you have increased your price to accommodate the bribe.  Unless the employer has a business practice of accepting this conduct, and you’d have to hear it from the employer, bribes jeopardizes the employee’s position and your relationship with the customer.  On government jobs you’ll be breaking the law; so is the employee.  On some jobs you will be required to sign an agreement prohibiting bribes.  Some employers have stated polices prohibiting or limiting “gifts” to employees.  Showing appreciation to employees is tricky, and while it can be done in acceptable ways, you do have to be careful not to violate employer rules, laws and reasonable standards. 
          I’ve been representing the alarm industry for almost 50 years.  This is the first time I’ve been asked about bribing or gifting customer employees.  If it’s common place in the industry I am not aware of it.  If your services are what they should be then bribes should be unnecessary.
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Announcing webinar on the Miami building collapse case presented by the fire alarm expert who installed and serviced the fire alarm and evac system.  If you do fire alarms you don’t want to miss this webinar.  Register today.
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Webinar:  Champlain Towers South building collapse / alarm and security issues
When:  July 26, 2022  12PM  ET
Topic:  Hear from the fire alarm expert who serviced the fire alarm system and was intimately involved in the litigation involving Securitas Security.                 Some information that you should be aware of before the presentation:  Florida requires a voice evacuation system that provides speakers in every apartment so there can be floor by floor or building wide communication to evacuate.  This fire alarm system had that system and it was working.  Securitas provided security guards stationed at the building.  When the first fire alarm signal came into the security desk the guard did not determine the cause of the fire alarm or the zone, and did not utilize the evacuation system to alert residents.  Securitas has settled the Plaintiffs case paying over half of the almost one billion dollar settlement.  
Presented by:  Matt Haiman, Premier Alarm Systems – the fire alarm company for Champlain Towers South.  There will be ample opportunity for Q&A. 
Hosted by:  Ken Kirschenbaum,Esq
Who should attend:  Alarm owners installing and servicing fire alarm systems
Register:  https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/6851622525896222987
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Ken Kirschenbaum,Esq
Kirschenbaum & Kirschenbaum PC
Attorneys at Law
200 Garden City Plaza
Garden City, NY 11530
516 747 6700 x 301
ken@kirschenbaumesq.com
www.KirschenbaumEsq.com