Bribery Act & Proceeds of Crime, Corporate hospitality - Written by on Sunday, November 20, 2011 10:51 - 1 Comment

Alex, his PA the PA ‘kickbacks’ & how to spot them

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A nice cartoon of Alex, our favourite City Banker, on Friday last week in the Daily Telegraph which flags up that it’s not just the bankers on the receiving end of some nice perks.

We’ve written about SPIFF’s (special payment incentives for fast sales) and incentives on numerous occasions including the ingredients to reduce the risk that these arrangements do not cause disquiet among investigators and prosecutors.

One of these ingredients is transparency, namely that the employer of the person receiving the benefit is notified and knows about it by the incentive provider.

However, Alex is on the money as usual. At least one chain of City restaurants offers incentives to PA’s if they book their bosses lunch appointments with them in an arrangement which the employer is not aware of.

The good news is that the victim of this particular practice is usually fairly easy to spot without major sleuthing…after a few months their waistline is likely to have materially expanded.

From this picture it looks as though Alex’ PA has also benefitted from this scheme…

Image © Peattie & Taylor – by kind permission

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James Vine (@JamesPSVine)
Nov 24, 2011 0:44

I’ve often wondered about those stationery catalogues promising tins of Choccies or cheap MP3 players for orders over a certain value.
There’s always the issue over whether or not the office pen&paper purchaser is in fact effecting an improper performance of their function by choosing pens or paper from that catalogue, (when he or she may have done anyway) but those catalogue producers who don’t offer freebies might think otherwise.
One for Keir Starmer rather than RA perhaps.

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