Money laundering scheme uncovered in WTC investigation

Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau indicted the owners of several New York City check-cashing companies yesterday for a money-laundering scheme that authorities uncovered while investigating a contaminated World Trade Center building. Rose Gill Hearn, the city’s commissioner of investigations, said the alleged scheme was a “shell game” in which checks related to the former Deutsche Bank building were cashed. Riad Khalil and Neil Goldstein, owners of two of the check-cashing companies, were slated to be arraigned yesterday on charges of falsifying business records.