From NY Times:

Stimulus Funds Go to Company Under Cloud

Government agencies in the New York region, wary about potential fraud and abuse in the $787 billion federal stimulus program, have said they are taking extraordinary measures to ensure that contracts for projects ranging from subway tunnels to summer jobs programs do not go to companies with questionable histories.

But despite such efforts, records show that one federal agency has awarded $6 million in stimulus funds to a huge international construction management company that has been the focus of two criminal investigations in the last two years and was suspended in June from bidding on and performing work at New York City schools.

The company, Bovis Lend Lease LMB, avoided manslaughter charges late last year in the deaths of two firefighters at the former Deutsche Bank building in 2007, admitting failures and agreeing to safety reforms in an agreement with prosecutors.

» Read more: Stimulus Funds Go to Company Under Cloud

From the Villager (N.Y.)

3 indicted in firefighters’ deaths in Deutsche blaze

Three construction supervisors were indicted Monday for manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide and reckless endangerment in the deaths of two firefighters in the August 2007 fire in the Deutsche Bank building next to the World Trade Center site.

Firefighters Robert Beddia, 53, and Joseph Graffagnino, 33, died from smoke inhalation on the 14th floor of 130 Liberty St., where a fire raged through nine floors of the building, which was being demolished because of damage during the World Trade Center attack in 2001.

New York City and Bovis Lend Lease, the prime contractor, were not indicted, although the grand jury report found that the company and many city agencies had been negligent.

» Read more: 3 construction supervisors indicted in firefighters’ deaths in Deutsche blaze