N001981
Friday, January 18, 2002 11:25 AM
To: Department of Justice, Re: , WTC Victim
COMMENTS OF THE INTERIM RULES
To: Mr. Kenneth R. Feinberg, Special Master.
Dear Mr. Feinberg,
I was born in Greece in a small village of 166 people fifteen days before the Prime Minister of Greece John Metaxas marked the entrance of Greece into W.W.II. As a small child, I was often hungry. At thirteen years old, I walked over three hours a day to and from school in the midst of heat, rain, snow, ice and sleet, crossing rivers without bridges, usually barefoot. My parents loved their five children very much and tried their best to educate us. They believed that with education, honesty, and hard work, a person can improve his social and financial status, and in doing so, benefit not only himself, but his community as well. My parents were very proud of me when in 1961 the then-King of Greece Paul handed me the graduation diploma from the Maritime College.
When I arrived in New York in 1967, I took a job with the United States Shipping Company, located at One Broadway in New York City, and my starting salary was $80.00. I chose to become a citizen of the United States of America because I believed in the country, I had faith in the U.S. government, and I thought the protection of its citizens and the justice provided to its people was far superior to that of any other country. While working full-time, I attended Baruch College at night to further my education. In 1976, I received my Masters in Business Administration Degree. While earning my MBA, my wife and I were raising three beautiful daughters. The youngest,
, was born on October 30, 1974. is in the middle of the trio in the photograph below; she pursued her love of dance to the age of twenty.
and I are extremely proud of our girls. We've watched them grow into responsible adults who didn’t indulge in the negative influences or vices that others sometimes give into. My girls are all known to their family, friends, co-workers, and community as kind, polite women who are ready to help others around them. They were devoted to their schoolwork and are all disciplined young ladies.
was an outstanding student. Her school teachers consistently noted that "She is a delightful child and an excellent student...she is an outstanding student and a delight in my classroom." ’s grades were also outstanding--her grades in the fifth grade, for example, were all "E's" for "Excellent". A copy of ’s fifth grade report card has been faxed to your attention at for incorporation as an attachment into this report.
In High School, always enrolled in Honor Classes. She went on to graduate from in 1996, where in addition to her studies, she spent time volunteering in a local community shelter.
I can clearly recall how proud we were of her on graduation day. During the ceremony, I reflected upon my own roots, upon my own childhood and struggles, and realized that my belief in the great opportunities offered by this country was reinforced by the knowledge that my graduated from an Ivy League School.
After graduation, started working at She was a goal-setter and believed that anything was possible with continuous education, honesty, hard work, respect for others and determination. developed into and aspired to be an executive who was liked and admired, as opposed to feared by her colleagues and subordinates. generated love and compliments, but studiously avoided becoming self-important. ’s spirit is best described in a fax which she transmitted on February 12, 2001 to , "This is intended for the few, the determined, the spirited who have the guts to follow their dreams! Good luck , I have full faith and confidence in you, ." People who knew , even for a short period of time, couldn’t help but notice her spirit, warmth and generosity. In the midst of our grieving, my family received a letter from a stranger from Dallas, Texas named , that demonstrates the profound effect she had on people. wrote, "You don't know me, but I know your sister ...whom I can say I personally admired...she was a client of mine...from our first contact, was a dream to know. She was smart, professional, courteous and very kind...this is a business where allot of people don't give you the time of day, was the polar opposite...I was immediately impressed with her courteous attitude and generosity of showing me around...I truly believe is a type of person that God blesses us humans with the acquaintance of only so often and I consider myself one of the blessed. Even though I know only five short months, her special qualities touched me and I will always be eternally grateful." Copies of ’s 2/12/01 fax to and the letter from have been faxed to your attention at for incorporation as an attachment to this report.
worked and thrived in a business that can be dehumanizing at times. Despite that, she never forgot who she was, she always had a huge heart, and was always willing to extend a helping hand. always made the time to counsel a distressed friend; in fact, it seemed that her spirit guided her to those in need of assistance, especially when it came to lending support to her two older sisters. also loved to celebrate and would never forget the birthdays of the young children that she befriended. Despite her hectic career, was just entering a very special future with her future fiancé . She also found the time to make memories: with friends at baseball games and snowboarding, fishing with her father, venturing onto the Peconic Bay in a kayak, attending operas at the Met with her mother, taking golf lessons with her fiancé, hiking with her cousins, and enjoying the New York nightlife with her sisters and friends. She was a lover of friendship, family and good times. After becoming a in June of 2001, life for had become more enjoyable, sweet and somewhat predictable. Her voice developed great confidence when speaking about the future--she looked toward it with great optimism and with a belief that it lacked limitation.
After graduating from , continued her education--she knew that increased economic remuneration required an edge over one’s peers, and she believed education would provide her with that edge. She knew about the financial industry because I have been working for since 1977 as a financial advisor, and when she started working at , she found that the securities industry was a sector of the economy that she wanted to be a part of. So, decided to become a . The certification process requires passing three individual exams--one can take only one exam per year. Also, one must pass each part before taking the next level exam, or wait a year to retake the failed exam. With much diligence, passed all three exams within three consecutive years. In '99, the reward for passing Part One was a doubling in her regular salary, to $80,000. In June of 2000, she passed Part Two, and again saw a significant increase in salary. In June of 2001, passed the third and final exam and was certified as a . At that time, her regular annual salary was increased to $200,000 (paid semi-monthly at a rate of $8,333.33). A copy of ’s last paycheck received on September 15, 2001, has been faxed to your attention at for incorporation as an attachment to this report. In addition to increasing her base salary, her employer, , promoted to the position of Vice President Analyst. They gave her a private windowed office on the floor of the North Tower of the WTC. As additional compensation, gives each analyst like the sum of $250,000 to be invested as each analyst saw fit. All the capital gains, all profits, and income from this account are for the benefit of the analyst, while the employer absorbs any losses. In addition, each analyst competes for a quarterly bonus of $50,000 if the group of stocks he or she recommends performs best. About one year earlier, (then an Associate Analyst) received $25,000 bonus when the energy group of stocks her team followed performed the best for the quarter. Finally, each analyst participates in the firm’s bonus distribution at year’s end. It is widely known the financial industry pays experienced millions of dollars in salary each year.
’s plans were much more grandiose than anything she had accomplished to date. You see, I am a Senior Financial Advisor with with twenty-four years of experience. My eldest daughter is also a Financial Advisor with . was a CFA, and her fiancé is also an analyst with for over five years. Our dream was to establish our own investment firm and work together after ’s marriage. We believed we had the ability to establish a successful money management firm. and I lived in the same house and worked 200 feet apart from one another (she in the World Trade Center, and I in the World Financial Center), and we usually commuted to work together. During our commute, we planned our future company, its structural organization, what position each of us would hold, when would be the appropriate time to launch our company, and the quality of research and investments we would offer.
September 11, 2001, started out just like any other workday. My wife drove and me to the train/bus station at Great Kills. That day, I decided to take the train instead of the bus with . When the South Tower of the World Financial Center, where I was working, was ordered to evacuate, my daughter and I ran down 40 flights of stairs and onto the West Side Highway. We stepped outside directly across the street from the World Trade Center. We faced the North Tower's intense fire and smoke. Our hearts broke.
Instinctively, I wanted to rush across the street towards the burning tower--I knew my was engulfed in flames or suffocating from smoke, and I wanted to be there to help her, to bandage her head or her broken body, or free her from whatever debris had fallen on her. I wanted to carry her out of that place called Hell. Our disbelieving eyes were weeping. Debris fell from the sky and landed all around us. Police and security people pushed and directed us and the crowd away from the buildings toward the West Side River, towards what they thought was safety.
My personal safety did not cross my mind at that moment. I was worried more about , who was crying for fear of her sister's whereabouts. We were consumed with thoughts of her being trapped in her office, or burning alive—what if she was stuck in an elevator on the 90th floor? I was paralyzed, not knowing what to do or think. kept calling her sister's cell phone, hoping she would pick it up. Nothing worked. In a mummified state we sat around watching the tragedy unfold, only to witness another airplane crash into the second tower right before our eyes. People were clinging to the outside of the tower, jumping from 100 floors above into nothing in an effort to escape the intense heat and asphyxiation.
Our paralysis overrode our desire to walk away from the disaster--we stayed for almost an hour, desperately searching the masses of people around us for ’s face. We refused to believe that our beautiful could vanish in front of our eyes, and that we would witness such evil. We refused to go away from this crime scene--we only left when we heard loud voices scream "Run away, run away," and then heard the thunder of what sounded like an avalanche. and I tried to run towards the South Ferry, but we were overrun and engulfed in darkness and the falling debris of the collapsing South Tower. We shared my handkerchief in a vain effort to filter the air and facilitate our breathing. When we reached the Museum of Jewish Heritage, I dipped my handkerchief in a pool of stagnant water to wash it a bit and refresh it for the continued use. The stench of the water was unbearable. There was nowhere to run, you couldn't see directly in front of you. The soot from the collapsed building covered our heads, our clothes, our bodies in an inch of ash, and I wondered if somewhere in that ash was part of my .
While running, I also thought of how the people of Japan felt when the atomic bomb fell--I wondered if they felt the same desperation, agony, helplessness, and lack of desire to live as I felt, as I sometimes feel now. Eventually, we made our way towards the Staten Island Ferry Terminal and went into a building on State Street. The people were kind and were trying their best to help us clean off the soot. When we left four hours later (the ferry couldn’t run because of the lack of visibility caused by the buildings’ collapse), I watched ’s desperate eyes searching the crowd for her sister.
Even now, it is almost impossible to believe what happened actually happened, to realize that the sacrifices and I made for our children were in vain, to know that was snatched from our arms. There is a gut wrenching pain lodged inside of me that cannot find an outlet. I live each day with a paralyzing numbness. I know the empty days that come and will continue to come for the rest of my life, especially on 's birthday, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, Anniversaries and other birthdays. I know the grief that only a parent understands, the pain that makes life seem worthless. I know the blessing of momentary relief that sometimes comes with sleep, if I can manage to sleep. I also know nightmares, and see images of buildings burning with my daughter calling me for help--in those dreams, I am unable to extend my hand. My feet are paralyzed, and I can’t step towards her direction to offer her help. I often awake to change my sleeping cloths because they are drenched with sweat from my nightmares. I know what it means to wake and immediately think of , and remember what has happened, even though I'm trying hard to steer away from all the unpleasant memories.
I question why the government that I admired so much neglected to protect my daughter and so many others, why it failed its most important duty: to protect the safety and well-being of its citizens. On Friday, January 4, 2002, the Staten Island Advance published an article (page A23) entitled, "An early Al-Qaida Plot Unraveled"--the article claims that the CIA and the FBI were aware of Operation Bojinka since 1995, and yet our Federal Government failed to protect so many innocent people. In addition, our government gave $20 billion dollars from our taxes to the airline industry and created a compensation system that reduces the liability of the airlines and others, while it simultaneously limits its citizens’ right to recover damages in court. I never imagined a day when I would receive an ultimatum from the United States Government to blindly accept or reject a settlement offer, the material terms of which have not been explained or disclosed to me in advance. Adding to my disbelief is the fact that I do not have the right to later reject the settlement if the amount, when it is eventually disclosed, is inadequate. How can I make such a decision? I never thought that the Constitutional due process requirements would permit these types of procedures, let alone that they would be practiced by the Department of Justice of the United States of America, the department whose primary responsibility is to protect all the rights of all of its citizens. I cannot fathom how any person can tell me and that $250,000 covers the extraordinary ordeal that we went through on September 11,
or our pain, agony, fear, helplessness, suffering, that accompanies the loss of such an extraordinary child and sister.
It is equally difficult for me to comprehend how it is possible for an individual to estimate the economic loss of my without having knowledge of all the aforementioned information about her. How can anyone tell that, while she was only 26 years old and saw that the fruits of her work efforts quintupled her base annual salary (from $40,000 to $200,000) in a three-year period, she would only get a 6.6% annual salary raise from the age of 26 to 70. Realistically, how many people in ’s position would accept such a ridiculous proposition/assumption from their employer?
Mr. Kenneth Feinberg, Special Master, thank you very much for giving me the opportunity to describe to you my missing daughter; I hope you now have a more complete picture of her and of the great loss we suffer.
, born on October 30, 1974.
She was a person with a Golden Heart who possessed great character and moral values.
She was a Graduate
She was a CFA
She was a , Analyst with
She took charge of her life and had big dreams for a bright future. My daughter would have been engaged on October 30, 2001, her twenty-seventh birthday. She fulfilled my dreams to escape poverty and would have been in a responsible position in the future to influence events and benefit people.
I also appreciate the opportunity to share with you what and I witnessed and went through on September 11th , and the feelings and fears we experienced on that horrific day, and what now my entire family goes through every single day.
Our family is peaceful and believes in self-respect, and having respect for others. We believe that reasonable people form better societies. We know that courts should always be the last resort. On November of 2001, I stepped into a courthouse for the first time in my life to be appointed as co-administrator of my dead daughter's estate. We do not wish to go to court. However, I ask that you put yourself in my position: as one father to another, tell me what settlement is fair and just, and should keep me from seeking justice for the death of my beautiful in a court of law.
I patiently await your answer. Until then, I remain,
Sincerely yours,
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