Boston Bombing "Victims" Given Compensation (Hush Money)

Didn't realize this:

The charity fund established after the Boston Marathon bombings awarded $60.9 million Friday to victims of the attacks, including maximum payments of nearly $2.2 million each to two double amputees and the families of the four people slain.

Fourteen other people who lost single limbs will receive nearly $1.2 million each. In all, 232 victims will receive payments, said Camille Biros, deputy administrator of the One Fund Boston, which has been collecting public donations for the victims. The statistics that accompany the payments provide the best accounting to date of the human impact of the April 15 attack, though some injured people might not have applied for compensation. Authorities have said that more than 260 people were hurt in the blasts.

Sixty-nine people who were hospitalized for at least one night will receive six-figure payouts that range from $125,000 for the 18 people who spent one or two nights in a medical facility to $948,000 for the 10 victims who spent 32 nights or more. Some members of that group are still in rehab hospitals. An additional 143 people who were treated at hospitals but did not require admission will receive $8,000 each, Biros said.

The size of the awards was determined by attorney Kenneth Feinberg, who has decided compensation after other disasters, including the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill. In this case, the lump-sum, tax-free payments were awarded regardless of individual income or medical costs, and recipients did not have to relinquish their right to sue.

Tax free, with no strings? That seems rather unprecedented. Plus, given out by the same guy who handled other fishy disasters. Very stinky.

Via this McGowan piece.

And this Fetzer interview with McGowan is well worth a listen.