Taxpayer money intended to go to charity was instead siphoned off by one of the top officers of that fund, it appears. Not all out theft, but the more typical conflict-of-interest someone in charge awarding contracts and being rewarded for giving the contract to that company. 9/11 Victim's Fund granted contracts worth millions to official's law firm Negotiations for contracts worth $3.6 million issued by the Sept. 11 Victim Compensation Fund (VCF) were tainted by an apparent conflict of interest, according to a new report released by the Department of Justice (DOJ) Office of Inspector General (OIG). As part of the OIG's audit, investigators examined thousands of compensation claims between May 2011 and December 2015. The audit revealed that then-deputy special master Deborah Greenspan, the fund's second in command, issued 18 non-competitive neutral service contracts for the 9/11 fund to two law firms that listed Greenspan as a partner. The OIG audit found that Greenspan signed the federal contracts as "the representative" of Dickstein Shapiro law firm, which was later acquired by Blank Rome LLP. In May 2011, Congress created the VCF to compensate 9/11 first responders who developed medical conditions like asthma or cancer from working at attack sites. The fund was also meant to compensate the family members of responders who died from ailments related to their work. Greenspan was the part-time pro-bono deputy special master of the fund while continuing to work as a full-time private lawyer. Altogether, "the VCF ultimately paid over $3.6 million to Greenspan's law firms to develop policies and guidelines, perform trainings, and otherwise supported [Special Master's Office] operations," according to the OIG audit. How did Greenspan's law firms win these contracts? According to the OIG report, special master Sheila Birnbaum, the New York-based attorney and head of VCF who appointed Greenspan, "expressly requested" that the fund's contracting officer hire Greenspan's law firms. Birnbaum's influence "held a lot of weight," the contracting officer told the OIG. The OIG reviewed documents from the contracting officer and found limited specific reasoning to explain why the VCF awarded the contracts to Dickstein Shapiro and Blank Rome. These documents "cited Deputy Special Master Greenspan's expertise and previous experience with the original VCF" and also provided "a generic statement that the unique requirements of the procurement precluded competition." The contracts, according to the OIG, lacked "sufficient justifications," which risked "creating the perception that the contractor received inappropriate or otherwise unfair preferential treatment." "At a minimum…this action created the appearance of a conflict of interest," investigators wrote. The OIG was unable to determine if Greenspan financially benefitted from these contracts. http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/9-...s-to-officials-law-firm/ar-AAqkJZJ?li=BBnbfcL Just like tons of money was skimmed off from those 9/11 non-profit charities and never reached the victims, now we find out likewise that money was skimmed off from a government set up fund. Unethical people in high places.
