9/11 families battling over $3.5B in Taliban funds

Osama bin Laden in a tv broadcast on Oct. 7, 2001.
AP

An ugly battle is brewing amongst 9/11 victims’ households over $3.5 billion in Taliban funds.

The authorized drama pits relations of 47 folks killed in the course of the terror assaults towards the kin of almost 3,000 others.

The battle erupted in September, a month after the Taliban seized Afghanistan, when legal professionals for about 150 members of the 47 households in a lawsuit referred to as, “Havlish vs. Osama bin Laden,” quietly broke away from the remainder of the 9/11 sufferer neighborhood by way of a authorized maneuver. The transfer put the 47 households able to seize the cash first.

It paid off final month when President Biden unfroze $7 billion in Taliban belongings held within the US, setting apart half for Afghanistan humanitarian assist and liberating up the opposite half to be distributed to 9/11 victims and relations.

Now, different relations among the many 2,977 folks killed on 9/11 are demanding that the Taliban cash be pretty divided. A Manhattan federal choose will resolve on the distribution.

“Something wanting an equal cut up amongst the 9/11 neighborhood can be a failure of our judicial system,” stated Brett Eagleson, whose father, Bruce, a retail government, was killed within the South Tower collapse whereas giving walkie talkies to firefighters. 

The households of 9/11 victims communicate at a convention in Aug. 2002.

Eagleson challenged legal professionals representing the 47 households to “look me within the eye” and provides “one good cause” why the loss of life of his dad “is value lower than the loss of life of any of [their] purchasers.” 

Whereas a overwhelming majority of the 9/11 victims’ kin is likely to be shut out, the companies of eight legal professionals who signify the Havlish households are poised to presumably rating a whole bunch of hundreds of thousands of dollars in authorized charges.

They embrace Lee Wolosky, a lawyer and diplomat who suggested the Biden administration on Afghan evacuees as a particular counsel however left in January to rejoin one of many legislation companies that stands to learn, Jenner & Block.

Fiona and Donald Havlish at their wedding ceremony on August 9, 1993.

Wolosky and one other lawyer on the Manhattan agency representing the Havlish plaintiffs, Douglas Mitchell, declined to remark.

Two of the eight legal professionals, Dennis Pantazis and Richard Hailey, are a part of an government committee created by a federal choose in 2004 to “signify the pursuits” of all of the 9/11 plaintiffs. 

Pantazis instructed The Publish, “We've been pursuing the Taliban for almost 20 years in line with the pursuits of all 9/11 households. Finally, any allocation of funds is less than us and rests solely with the court docket.”

One other Havlish lawyer who requested to not be named, dismissed criticism that their potential windfall is unfair.

Osama bin Laden in an Oct. 2004 broadcast.

AP

“Twenty years in the past, everyone thought we have been loopy once we filed this lawsuit. Whenever you’re successful, you’re ‘grasping legal professionals,’” he stated.

Lead plaintiff Fiona Havlish, whose insurance coverage government husband Donald Havlish died within the World Commerce Middle’s South Tower, referred to as for peace within the 9/11 neighborhood in a joint assertion to The Publish with fellow plaintiff Ellen Saracini, whose husband Victor Saracini was one of many pilots of hijacked United Flight 175, which struck the South Tower.

“It is crucial for us to come back collectively to the extent attainable. We share the identical grief and the identical targets,” Havlish and Saracini stated.

Retired firefighter Jim Riches, whose son was killed in the course of the 2001 terrorist assault, poses for an image close to his house in New York.

AP

The Havlish legal professionals satisfied a Manhattan federal court docket in September to serve the Federal Reserve of New York with a “writ of execution” to grab Afghanistan authorities belongings to fulfill greater than $7 billion in default judgments they beforehand gained towards bin Laden and the Taliban over a decade in the past.

The federal government hasn’t taken a place on how the $3.5 billion Biden freed up must be divided, leaving it to the courts. Underneath New York legislation, nevertheless, the Havlish litigants might have precedence to gather the money as a result of they staked a declare to it first. 

Kinfolk in different lawsuits towards the Taliban are demanding their justifiable share.

Brett Eagleson with father Bruce Eagleson, who was killed within the South Tower collapse whereas giving walkie talkies to firefighters

“I really feel just like the households are going to battle for that, and our legal professionals are on it,” stated Monica Iken, whose bond dealer husband Michael was killed on 9/11. “We have been all affected, and it must be distributed equally amongst all those that misplaced a liked one.” 

Retired FDNY Deputy Chief Jim Riches, whose firefighter son Jimmy perished, stated of the fits, “They instructed us we’d by no means get something from it. Now that the cash has materialized, it’s household towards household. They need to simply divide it up 2,900 methods.”

Practically all of the households have acquired a number of different awards: payouts from the feds’ authentic Sufferer Compensation fund, which doled out $7 billion to next-of-kin; lawsuit settlements with airways; and $3.3 billion from the U.S. Victims of State Sponsored Terrorism Fund, arrange in 2015.