Scandal surrounds fire tragedy

Hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars earmarked for the demolition of the Deutsche Bank building may have been ripped off, The Post has learned.

DA EYES DEUTSCHE MONEY 'FRAUD'

The revelation deepens the scandal surrounding the cursed building, where firefighters Robert Beddia and Joseph Graffagnino were killed in a blaze last summer.

The money trail emerging from a mountain of more than 1 million pages of subpoenaed financial records and documents - has already led to a questionable pattern of corporate and bank transfers involving hundreds of thousands of dollars, law-enforcement sources said.

Some of the funds have passed into companies that prosecutors and city investigators suspect are "shell" businesses created on paper to mask the ultimate destinations of the money.

The disclosure raises the possibility that cash may have been diverted and used for a number of illicit reasons including:

* Lining the pockets of company officials or employees whose existence was unknown to city and state officials.

* Kicking back money to people involved in the contracting process.

* Making payments under the table so recipients could avoid taxes.