Victims call fund unfair

New York

Cantor Fitzgerald, the bond-trading firm that lost 658 employees in the attack on the World Trade Center, said this week that the federal Victim Compensation Fund was shortchanging widows and children. Caps unfairly placed on payouts have cost Cantor families millions of dollars, said Stephen Merkel, Cantor’s general counsel. In most courts, Merkel said, the widow of a 30-year-old bond trader with a six-figure salary would be awarded $5 million to make up for a lifetime of lost income; under the fund’s cap, she’d get no more than $3 million. Merkel said the fund’s special master, Kenneth Feinberg, has his heart “in the right place,” but his “regulations are wrong on so many levels.” Feinberg said he would review the complaints “with great care.”

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up