Victims for a Second Time

By Rebecca Winters

As charities and government agencies raced to distribute billions of dollars in assistance to families and businesses hurt by the Sept. 11 attacks, it was inevitable that some undeserving tricksters would exploit the system. The Manhattan district attorney's office has thus far charged 76 people with fraudulently seeking aid and taking part in other schemes related to 9/11 assistance. But sources tell TIME the post-9/11 fraud isn't limited to just phony victims. A former worker at one of the disaster-assistance centers in Manhattan says some employees of the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the New York City-based charity Safe Horizon have been cheating the system and even swindling some applicants out of money.

In one common scam, according to the worker, interpreters hired by FEMA would approach aid seekers who don't speak English, often elderly Chinese or recent immigrants, while they stood in line at the centers. The translators would tell applicants they were ineligible for aid and give them the business card of a confederate who would then provide fake documents for as much as $400. The fees would be split, according to the source, with the interpreters and sometimes with caseworkers at the centers.

At both Safe Horizon and FEMA, local workers were hired quickly in the first few weeks after the attacks, often from job fairs and temp agencies. The former assistance worker says he became "disheartened" by an atmosphere at the centers in which staffers would stuff prepaid phone cards intended for victims into their FEMA aprons and in which computers and other equipment available only to employees turned up missing. This worker, like many among the center staff, was let go when the tide of aid applicants slowed this spring.

The D.A.'s office has charged one Safe Horizon worker with stealing blank checks from the charity, and Safe Horizon says it has reported another employee to the D.A. for unspecified offenses. Sources tell TIME that at least one FEMA interpreter is under investigation. FEMA spokesman John Czwartacki confirms that the agency has referred fraud cases to the D.A. but would not comment on whether FEMA employees were involved. The extent and variety of the schemes FEMA has seen, Czwartacki says, "boggles the mind." --By Rebecca Winters. Reported by Victoria Balfour

With reporting by Victoria Balfour