A report just released by the Department of Justice Office of Inspector General shows what seems to be a conflict of interest within the September 11 Victim Compensation Fund (VCF) .
Compensation claims issued between spring of 2011 and the end of the year in 2015 were examined, and it was found that Deborah Greenspan, the VCFs part-time, unpaid, deputy special master, issued a number of VCF contracts totalling $3.6 million to two law firms in which she was a partner, reports Bo Erickson of CBS News. Then-Special Master of the VCF, Sheila Birnbaum, is said in the report to have requested that these firms be used. These contracts have now been terminated.
The September 11 Victim Compensation Fund, commonly called the Zadroga Act, was started by Congress in May 2011, Congress to compensate 9/11 rescue and recovery workers who became ill due to their work in the recovery efforts after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. The fund also compensates dependents of those recovery workers who have died from site-related illnesses.
Neither Birnbaum nor Greenspan currently work with the VCF.
