The city of New York doesn’t play when it comes to the “Valuable Gift Rule”, the city employees are not allowed to accept gifts valued over $50. A firefighter named John Curatolo didn’t seem to remember that rule when he accepted last year Super Bowl tickets as a gift from NFL VP Anna Isaacson.
Curatolo worked with Isaacson last year coordinating street closures for a Super Bowl event and she gave him the tickets under the condition he couldn’t sell them. Curatolo agreed to that condition and gave away some tickets to other firefighters who attended the Super Bowl as well.
Curatolo is now being fined $4k and 6 other firefighters received a $500 fine each as well for accepting those tickets. I find the punishment is pretty harsh but I guess you must have strong penalties to fight corruptions in big cities like New York.