They Did Not Ask Too Many Questions…

Who is John Galt? by beatak on Flickr.

Today the Post reported on the investigation into the financial shenanigans of the various contractors tasked with demolishing the Deutsche Bank building, which was damaged in the attacks of 11 September 2001. According to the story, significant sums of taxpayer dollars meant to fund the demolition may have gone into the pockets of some shady characters, via:

a questionable pattern of corporate and bank transfers involving hundreds of thousands of dollars, law-enforcement sources said. Some of the funds have passed into companies that prosecutors and city investigators suspect are “shell” businesses created on paper to mask the ultimate destinations of the money. The disclosure raises the possibility that cash may have been diverted and used for a number of illicit reasons…

…”Hundreds of thousands of dollars has been seen so far going south,” one source said. “The question is, where was it going and where did it end up?”…

The construction site’s manager, Bovis Lend Lease Corp., which was contracted by the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. to oversee the entire $150 million project, retained the John Galt Company to demolish the building and remove hazardous materials from it. The LMDC, which purchased the land and the building for $90 million, was under pressure to get the demolition moving because the building was slated to be replaced with a new structure and remained a bitter eyesore next to Ground Zero.

“They were in a bind and wanted it done,” one of the sources said.

“They did not ask too many questions, and that may be why there was room for f—ing around.”

As it turned out, Galt was little more than a corporate entity utilizing officials from two other companies working on the site: Regional Scaffolding and Hoisting Co., and Safeway Environmental Corp., which had its own questionable histories and little experience…