The Rebuilding of Ground Zero, Part 12

Heads must roll over this.

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

The revelation deepens the scandal surrounding the cursed building, where firefighters Robert Beddia and Joseph Graffagnino wre 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.

"Hundreds of thousands of dollars has been seen so far going south," one source said. "The question is, where was it going and where did it end up?"

The probe, conducted by the Manhattan DA and the city, has prompted a grand jury - which had been gathering once a week to investigate the fire - to now meet twice a week to hear the mounting evidence.

The DA's presentation is expected to take months to complete, the sources said.

In addition, prosecutors and investigators are getting a clearer picture on possibly bringing manslaughter charges against people responsible for ensuring safety at the 26-story demolition site at 130 Liberty St.

They include monitors who should have discovered that a potentially lifesaving standpipe hanging loosely from the basement's ceiling had been removed by workers before the fatal Aug. 18 blaze.

The company responsible for the demolition work was the John Galt company, which was merely a shell company made up of connected individuals who had shady business interests in the past and who should never have been allowed to bid on this particular job. Throw in graft and corruption and you had the makings of a deathtrap. The failure of those tasked with ensuring a safe worksite to report serious problems, including the inoperable standpipe, is inexcusable and criminal.

I hope the DA throws the book at all those involved, whether they are state officials working at and with the LMDC (who owns the building) or John Galt.

Meanwhile, the Port Authority continues to fight the NYS Supreme Court decision from two years ago that found that the Port Authority was 68% responsible for the 1993 WTC bombing, which is an inane argument given that the responsibility should rest 100% with the terrorists who murdered six people and wounded more than 1,000 in a bid to topple the towers. They've appealed to the Appellate Division. At issue is whether the Port Authority disregarded a memo that suggested the parking garage under the WTC be closed to the public - the terrorists carried out their deadly plan with a van packed with explosives parked in that garage. Under NYS law, if the Port Authority is found to be more than 50% liable, it would be responsible for 100% of the damages (welcome to the wonderful world of deep pockets since try getting the terrorists to pay the multi million verdicts that are likely from the case).