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9/11 aftermath brought out the worst in some

By Pete Catapano | amNewYork Managing Editor

September 11, 2006

As tragic as 9/11 was, it didn't stop hucksters from trying to make a buck -- or a lot of bucks -- off the worst attack on U.S. soil.

Just months after the attack, authorities were busting people claiming to have lost loved ones and business owners trying to cash in for government dollars. Below are some noteworthy cases:

-In July, Roy Singleton, a mobile home-dealer in Darlington, S.C., became the first person convicted for loan fraud outside New York City.

Singleton was sentenced to two years in prison and forced to pay $835,000 for obtaining small business loans that were intended for 9/11 victims.

In October 2001, Singleton claimed he was a World Trade Center victim so he could pocket a $487,600 loan from the Small Business Administration.

-Jerome Brandl was sentenced to six years in October 2003 for stealing a Mercedes Benz that he drove to New York, where he posed as a firefighter right after the attacks.

Brandl pleaded guilty to attempted criminal possession of stolen property and scheming to defraud. According to prosecutors, Brandl stayed at a New York engine company, received catered meals and tickets to a Mets game, and got free tolls and parking with an FDNY pass.

-In December 2003 Justin Patrick White, a Long Island City telemarketer got eight-years in prison for exploiting 9/11 to solicit more than $500,000 for a bogus charity.

Running "the Police Survivors fund," White collected $441,075 but paid out only $24,500 to slain officers' families, a federal indictment said

-Alexander Koltovsky and Vincent Pizzi were sentenced to almost three years in 2005 after filing for business recovery grants, claiming their firm, Alexander Edwards Global Search, Inc., had been on the 21st floor of the South Tower, when in fact it was in midtown. They collected more than $300,000 from the government and charities.

-One of the more bizarre 9/11 fraud cases came out of New Kensington, Pa., where a man who tried to collect money from a victims' fund by claiming his ex-wife had died in the attacks was found not guilty by reason of insanity.

According to the Post-Gazette newspaper, Stephen D. Laskowski, 59, claimed his wife died at the World Trade Center when in reality she was his ex-wife and lived in Florida.

Laskowski also lied about having four children, including triplets, to increase the amount of money he'd be granted, the paper said. Laskowski was also indicted on mail fraud charges in 2004 for filing paperwork stating his wife was killed in the trade center.