You just know that anyone caught embezzling money in any way related to 9/11 is going to be nailed. Rediff.com reports on one such individual:

An Indian-American has been arrested for allegedly embezzling millions of dollars from a fund meant to help identify victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre.

Prosecutors alleged that about $5.5 million had been transferred to bank accounts in India at the instance of Natarajan R Venkataram, a former administrator in the New York city medical examiner’s office…

The fund had been set up to buy computer hardware and software to help in the identification of victims.

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p>Apparently he was in this together with his co-worker/girlfriend Rosa Abreau. Let’s see which one will be the first to flip and turn state’s evidence against the other. If you threw in a murder this would make a good Law & Order episode.

Following Sept. 11, the duo steered an $11.4 million contract to Comprehensive Computer Resources, controlled by a close associate of Venkataram, who’s been cooperating with investigators in an effort to lessen his punishment.

While Comprehensive Computer Resources did work for the medical examiner, city officials determined it could have been done for a fraction of the cost, and have vowed to recover the millions lost.

Money was transferred out of Comprehensive Computer Resources accounts by Venkataram with blank checks signed by a Venkataram associate at the company. Some $400,000 was deposited in the account of a shell company controlled by [Rosa] Abreu’s stepmother and another $86,000 to a company controlled by Venkataram’s roommate, authorities say. [Link]

Do criminals ever learn? NEVER put your life in an informant’s hands.

…a man who ran Comprehensive Computer Resources admitted to investigators that he was a partner in the scheme. He then became a confidential informant for city investigators and secretly recorded conversations with Mr. Venkataram.

On one of those recordings, Mr. Venkataram said that he and his partners would be “in serious trouble” if there were a federal investigation, and he said that his life was in the informant’s hands. [Link]

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