© 2001/2002-???? Michael Dinardo (on the principle that individuals have copyrights or int. prop. rights to their work not organizations/collectives). 9/11 Crime Wave Some bottom-feeders saw the terrorist attacks not as a dark day for our country, but as a quick way to line their pockets. Stuff, October 2002 By Michael Dinardo A shady financier from Moscow. A mysterious art thief. Members of New York City’s five mafia families. And ordinary people from the Midwest to Morocco. Before the dust from the shattered World Trade Center even settled, the scavengers descended among the dead, looking for pickings. There were more than 2,800 victims of 9/11 in New York—and thousands who capitalized on the tragedy. Taken together, these criminals have accumulated more than $120 million in thefts, accounted for hundreds of arrests and produced at least two major fugitives. What they haven’t accumulated is much jail time. Yet. While 9/11 may have brought out the best in our country, it also brought out some of the worst. Here’s a rogues’ gallery of America’s vilest vultures. Scammers Aside from the run-of-the-mill lowlifes who sell fake souvenirs or invent charities for themselves, 9/11 scam artists from the U.S., Mexico, Canada, Puerto Rico, Italy, China and even Morocco have all invented “losses” that never occurred or killed off relatives who are still alive. Law-enforcement agencies are investigating more than 100 of these cases, and the number keeps climbing—thanks to people like Woodrow Fleming. Fleming, 48, was living in a homeless shelter on New York’s Wards Island when the planes hit. After hearing about the financial assistance offered to businesses near Ground Zero, Fleming claimed that his street-vending business selling CDs, belts, sunglasses and videos had been destroyed. Forget whether the business ever existed—most street vending of this sort is illegal. Which apparently didn’t matter, since Fleming was handed nearly $12,000. A stunned Fleming then allegedly took the experience garnered from his 31-page rap sheet and assembled a merry band of 13 other homeless people into a charity mill (think urine-soaked Robin Hoods). With the money from his initial award he bought a delivery van, which he used to ferry his cohorts to relief sites around the city. Supplying the crew with “documents” saying they worked for him at his “vending table,” Fleming had his men collect big checks, then provide him with a cut. By the time the group was caught, Fleming—still living in a homeless shelter—had racked up more than $100,000 in stolen funds. Finally, officials at the Safe Horizon charity noticed that the documents the crew was providing were so filled with misspellings and mistakes that no lawyer could have written them (as Fleming claimed). Actually, it’s no shock that it took Safe Horizon so long to catch on. In a similar scam, one of Safe Horizon’s employees was arrested for stealing the charity’s checks and having her friends cash them. Even kids got into the act. Five teens in Penfield, a small town in upstate New York, showed their concern over the 9/11 attacks by going door-to-door to solicit donations for the Red Cross. Their take: $142 in cash and $500 in checks, which were never cashed, yet somehow never reached the Red Cross. So far, four of the five have pleaded guilty to a first-degree scheme to defraud—a felony—and are awaiting sentencing. Perhaps the fifth teen could simply lie. That strategy worked for ex–Philadelphia police officer Bill Bresnahan, who has traveled across the country peddling his new book, 9-11: Terror in America, and regaling audiences in churches and schools with his heroics at Ground Zero. He claims to have pulled body parts from the rubble, roped himself to firefighters in a hunt for survivors and even defended a Muslim hot-dog vendor from attackers seeking revenge. He then converted the vendor to Christianity right on the spot. All after speeding from Philly to New York after watching the attacks on television. Bresnahan’s downfall was his math. To get from Philly to New York and arrive just after the second tower fell, Bresnahan would have had to travel 120 miles in 55 minutes—at an average speed of 130 mph. Currently under indictment for theft by deception, Bresnahan has sold nearly 8,000 copies of his book (cowritten with David Bresnahan). At $26.95 a pop, that’s nearly a quarter of a million dollars—not a bad haul for a writer, especially a bad one. There were easier ways to get money—particularly if you banked with the Municipal Credit Union. As a result of the 9/11 attacks, the building housing the credit union’s computer system was damaged, so MCU was suddenly unable to track ATM withdrawals. Executives had to make a quick decision: Shut down the system completely, or allow the city, state and federal employees who make up their personnel to withdraw money on an honor system. They decided to trust their employees. In August, 66 Municipal members were arrested and another 35 sought for stealing up to $500 a day from the system—far beyond what their accounts would cover. Total thefts amounted to more than $15 million. And the Manhattan D.A.’s office has announced that as many as 4,000 more arrests are possible. Some of the alleged thieves were so brazen that they refused offers of low-interest loans to help pay back the stolen money. It might be tougher to work off now—35 cents an hour making license plates only goes so far. Grave robbers Not four hours after the towers fell, Stephen Ferry was discovered inside the wasteland of the restricted zone, dressed as a fireman and snapping photos. Only problem was, his uniform belonged to a dead firefighter. Ferry, a former White House correspondent, was spotted by a legitimate fireman who believed he’d discovered a buddy who was lucky enough to have survived. When Ferry ignored his calls, the fireman caught up and eloquently expressed his confusion with a shocked, “Where the fuck are you from?” In court, the firefighter described how Ferry refused to return the gear, claiming to be an out-of-town fireman and stammering, “You’ve got this all wrong—I’ve been helping you guys all day! Lug hose and, you know, carry things.” Lucky for Ferry, a nearby fire marshall arrested him just before FDNY members could administer some justice of their own. Not content, Ferry returned to the scene when he got out of jail the next day, and he was again discovered taking photos inside the secure zone. He was arrested once more and booked for criminal impersonation after he gave the cops a phony ID. His stern sentence: community service teaching photography and a $210 fine. Not all of the 9/11 grave robbers thought so small. Amidst the chaos following the attacks, one man decided a three-ton Bobcat earthmover owned by the NYPD wouldn’t be missed. It was loaded onto a flatbed and driven away. Cops tracked it down in Staten Island and arrested a construction-firm owner, Louis Gregorio. He claimed that he’d just bought the Bobcat and produced a phony $11,000 bill of sale. Makes sense. We always get the urge to buy our heavy equipment at the sites of national tragedies. The mob What would a New York crime spree be without a contribution from chubby guys in Gucci tracksuits? Two agencies are investigating alleged mob control of the unions that worked at Ground Zero. Last January, a New York State Organized Crime Task Force raided the crane-operators’ union headquarters and carted off boxes of records. Meanwhile, the FBI is investigating 75 members of the union that built and ran the Ground Zero construction elevators. Among those on the elevator union’s roster: Joseph Gotti, the late John Gotti’s nephew. Then there’s the scrap-metal caper. As workers set about removing one million tons of debris, more than 250 tons of scrap metal mysteriously vanished. Apparently, in some social club somewhere, a guy with a pinkie ring decided 250 tons of 800-pound girders would be easily overlooked. They weren’t. Investigators believe that at least 10 suspects from New York’s five mafia families were involved in the scheme to divert the steel to scrap yards of their choosing. The missing metal was found in yards in New Jersey and on New York’s Long Island. Authorities were so appalled that they equipped all WTC-related trucks with a Global Positioning System. Should the goodfellas ever stand trial, they’d face charges carrying prison terms of up to seven years each. The stolen steel would have netted them about $15,000. Split that 10 ways and you begin to understand why Tony Soprano sees a psychiatrist. The Russian connection Located on the 15th floor of the south tower was a little-known company called First Equity. Its 100 employees made it out alive—but after the attacks, the firm’s jittery investors began to call to check on their money. They could’ve saved the quarter. A man named Andrei Koudachev had set up First Equity as a clearinghouse for another firm he owned, Evergreen International. After 9/11, he cleared house. Koudachev is accused of using the disaster as a chance to flee with $106 million—because both companies were really just pyramid schemes. The story broke when an Evergreen trader was told by an executive at a golf outing that Koudachev had vanished and “they were never going to see him again.” The trader was offered a bribe in exchange for silence, but he went to the Feds instead. More than 1,400 investors from 14 countries have been burned; it’s one of the biggest heists in American history. Prosecution is all the more difficult because crucial records were likely destroyed in the attacks. Some conspiracy theorists even believe that First Equity orchestrated the attacks to cover their tracks. (They must have paid those pilots awfully well.) So far, the Feds have charged eight of Koudachev’s cohorts, each of whom faces up to 20 years in prison and millions in fines. Company president Gary Farberov has agreed to a plea but still faces 14 years in prison and a $220 million fine. Koudachev remains a fugitive, and it is doubtful that he will ever face trial. Meanwhile, less than $7 million of the stolen money has been recovered. The inside job Perhaps the biggest mystery surrounding 9/11 is what has become of a rare million-dollar statue. During his lifetime, French sculptor Auguste Rodin made a limited number of castings of his world-famous The Thinker. It may look like your average gym rat sitting on the toilet, but Cantor Fitzgerald founder B. Gerald Cantor became so enamored of Rodin’s work that he bought one of the rare Thinker castings, as well as hundreds of other Rodin sculptures. In fact, Cantor Fitzgerald was the biggest private holder of Rodin works in the world. And the prize of its collection was The Thinker, proudly displayed in the firm’s 105th-floor lobby. After the attacks, anyone who bothered to worry about art assumed that all of Cantor’s Rodins had either melted or been vaporized. (Indeed, ArtNews reports that more than $100 million worth of art was destroyed in the Trade Center attacks.) But, miraculously, portions of several Rodin works, including the completely intact Thinker, were discovered in the wreckage. And that’s where the mystery begins. And ends. The statue was last seen by a firefighter on December 6 in an FDNY property trailer, where it was being temporarily housed. Then it vanished. But who swiped it? One source involved in the investigation states, “They’re looking at the possibility that it was a firefighter.” Reportedly, there is even a photograph of a firefighter posing with the statue—after it was recovered. But that was months ago, and the New York State Department of Investigation maintains a terse “no comment” on the case. Many insiders doubt whether the theft is even being investigated. Law-enforcement sources quietly speculate that whoever has The Thinker might not even be aware of its worth. The $1 million sculpture could be in somebody’s backyard, sitting next to the lawn mower and getting crapped on by pigeons. Where it will probably remain. Because aside from a few pasty-faced sculpture fans, there may be only one group that’s really worried about finding the missing Thinker: a French insurance firm named AXA Nordstern, which is currently on the hook for $20 million in settlements for missing World Trade Center art. Now that’s justice. http://www.stuffmagazine.com/articles/html/article_434.html StuffMag [Issue 35] Towering Idiots Like Phil Donahue and France, some people responded to 9/11 in a way that was just…stupid. * One would-be charity scammer filed a claim for a dead relative, then listed the same relative as the person police should contact to reach him. * While showing potential buyers his upstate New York house, retired NYC firefighter Samuel Brandon, 60, reportedly couldn’t resist also showing them his “souvenirs” from working at Ground Zero. Among them: ID cards for Port Authority and Cantor Fitzgerald workers, a crushed police radio and a photo of himself holding up a bone he’d unearthed from the wreckage. A horrified homebuyer tipped off the police. Brandon now faces evidence-tampering charges. * Immediately following the attacks, supervisors on the New Jersey Turnpike suspended tolls. But tollbooth operator Raymond Novak, 54, allegedly collected the money anyway, pocketing the cash. Novak was bagged when a supervisor noticed traffic moving smoothly through all lanes except Novak’s. He was busted for stealing $715.05—presumably, in change. * Everton Lewis allegedly collected $38,000 in insurance settlements after claiming that his BMW was destroyed on 9/11. Not only was the car fine, but Lewis also kept using it. After collecting two parking tickets, Lewis told the insurance company that his car had been recovered. A miracle! He then tried to reinsure it with the same company—despite its pristine condition. He is now awaiting trial. Magazine © Dennis Felix of Dennis Publishing.