Who Is John Galt?

Depending upon your political views, Ayn Rand’s revolutionary character John Galt is either friend or foe. But we can offer an objective answer: he’s a debtor.

A company named for the protagonist of Rand’s 1957 novel “Atlas Shrugged” filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy liquidation Thursday, court papers show.

The company, which only filed its bankruptcy petition and a copy of the resolution authorizing its filing, is notable for more than its being named after a character heroicized by everyone from Tea Partiers to a yoga mogul.

John Galt Corp. was hired to help take down Deutsche Bank’s old building after it was damaged in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks at the World Trade Center. Not long after the company’s hiring, a 2007 fire in the building killed two New York City firefighters, and the company and two of its employees were charged with criminally negligent homicide and manslaughter for letting the building become a “death trap.”

The Wall Street Journal reported that the employees and the company were acquitted of the manslaughter charges after a trial last year, although John Galt Corp. was found guilty of reckless endangerment, a misdemeanor.

The company’s bankruptcy attorney, James P. Pagano, couldn’t be reached for comment Friday afternoon.

The 41-story Deutsche Bank building was located across from the World Trade Center and was seriously damaged during the Sept. 11 attacks. John Galt was among the subcontractors hired during the building’s decade-long dismantling, its job being to clear the building of asbestos and other dangerous debris.

In August 2007, someone’s tossed cigarette lit the fire that trapped and killed firefighters Robert Beddia, 53, and Joseph Graffagnino, 33, on the tower’s 14th floor.

According to WSJ, prosecutors targeted John Galt and two of its employees for their removal of a standpipe that they said could have provided the water firefighters needed to attack the blaze. But the defendants’ attorneys countered that various government and private officials had been on-site and failed to raise any red flags.

Graffagnino’s widow, Linda Graffagnino, was listed among John Galt’s creditors in its bankruptcy petition. This year, she accepted a $10 million settlement from New York City and Bovis Lend Lease, the contractor that hired John Galt and struck a deal with prosecutors to avoid criminal charges. Bovis was also listed as a John Galt creditor.

Beddia’s family received $6 million in settlement payments several years ago, according to the New York Daily News.