John Galt Corporation
Encyclopedia
The John Galt Corporation is a company based in New York City
, named for the character
from Ayn Rand's
novel
Atlas Shrugged
. Three of the company's construction supervisors are currently on trial for manslaughter
and criminally negligent homicide
as a result of the deaths of two firefighters in a fire which broke out in the Deutsche Bank Building, in 2007. The company had been contracted to demolish
the building as a result of severe damage it had suffered during the September 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center
, despite having never engaged in comparable demolition work. One of the company's purchasing agents, Robert Chiarappa, has been sentenced to seven and a half years in prison for embezzling
over 1.2 million dollars from the building's demolition. Though founded in 1983, the company had apparently done no substantial work of any kind until it received the Deutsche Bank demolition contract, during which it essentially acted as a shell corporation for the Regional Scaffolding and Hoisting Company and two former Safeway Environmental Corporation executives, a practice which is "not unusual" within the demolition industry.
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, named for the character
John Galt
John Galt was a Scottish novelist, entrepreneur, and political and social commenter. Because he was the first novelist to deal with issues of the industrial revolution, he has been called the first political novelist in the English language.-Life:Born in Irvine, North Ayrshire, Scotland, Galt was...
from Ayn Rand's
Ayn Rand
Ayn Rand was a Russian-American novelist, philosopher, playwright, and screenwriter. She is known for her two best-selling novels The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged and for developing a philosophical system she called Objectivism....
novel
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
Atlas Shrugged
Atlas Shrugged
Atlas Shrugged is a novel by Ayn Rand, first published in 1957 in the United States. Rand's fourth and last novel, it was also her longest, and the one she considered to be her magnum opus in the realm of fiction writing...
. Three of the company's construction supervisors are currently on trial for manslaughter
Manslaughter
Manslaughter is a legal term for the killing of a human being, in a manner considered by law as less culpable than murder. The distinction between murder and manslaughter is said to have first been made by the Ancient Athenian lawmaker Dracon in the 7th century BC.The law generally differentiates...
and criminally negligent homicide
Negligent homicide
Negligent homicide is a criminal charge brought against people who, through criminal negligence, allow others to die.Negligent Homicide is a lesser included offense to first and second degree murder, in the sense that someone guilty of this offense can expect a more lenient sentence, often with...
as a result of the deaths of two firefighters in a fire which broke out in the Deutsche Bank Building, in 2007. The company had been contracted to demolish
Demolition
Demolition is the tearing-down of buildings and other structures, the opposite of construction. Demolition contrasts with deconstruction, which involves taking a building apart while carefully preserving valuable elements for re-use....
the building as a result of severe damage it had suffered during the September 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center
World Trade Center
The original World Trade Center was a complex with seven buildings featuring landmark twin towers in Lower Manhattan, New York City, United States. The complex opened on April 4, 1973, and was destroyed in 2001 during the September 11 attacks. The site is currently being rebuilt with five new...
, despite having never engaged in comparable demolition work. One of the company's purchasing agents, Robert Chiarappa, has been sentenced to seven and a half years in prison for embezzling
Embezzlement
Embezzlement is the act of dishonestly appropriating or secreting assets by one or more individuals to whom such assets have been entrusted....
over 1.2 million dollars from the building's demolition. Though founded in 1983, the company had apparently done no substantial work of any kind until it received the Deutsche Bank demolition contract, during which it essentially acted as a shell corporation for the Regional Scaffolding and Hoisting Company and two former Safeway Environmental Corporation executives, a practice which is "not unusual" within the demolition industry.