New York City — Eighty retired New York police officers and firefighters were charged on Tuesday, January 7,  in a suspected disability scam in which authorities said dozens of people falsely claimed to have been traumatized by the September 11 attacks.

In all, 106 suspects were charged in a scheme that goes back to the late 1980s, according to Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance, whose office led the two-year probe.

“The total amount stolen from taxpayers could reach $400 million,” Vance said. Disability payments, pension liabilities and salary demands are among the financial pressures on municipalities that are struggling to balance budgets while maintaining basic services.

Cyrus R. Vance Jr., the Manhattan district attorney, held a news conference on Tuesday to announce the indictments. The photograph is from an online account of one of the defendants, who had applied for disability.

Prosecutors released documents that included images of a number of the purportedly disabled suspects engaged in activities such as jet-skiing, martial arts instruction and piloting a helicopter.

New York prosecutors said many of the suspects claimed U.S. Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) benefits of $30,000 to $50,000 a year for psychiatric ailments such as post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety and depression that were so incapacitating they were unable to work – or, in some cases, even to leave their homes.

Officials said 84 of the 106 were in custody, and most of the remaining 22 defendants were expected to surrender or be arrested. Investigators said they were still collecting evidence and more people could be charged.

Officials said four men masterminded the wide-ranging scheme, directing hundreds of applicants to the SSDI benefits program and teaching them how to feign symptoms of mental and psychiatric damage in order to obtain benefits to which they were not entitled.

The four men charged with organizing the scheme are a retired New York police officer, a police detectives’ union official, a pension consultant and an attorney, officials said.

Newly appointed New York Police Commissioner Bill Bratton, who stood beside Vance at the news conference, said he could “only express disgust” at the actions of the suspects. He was especially irked that they invoked the suicide hijack attacks of 9/11.

“The idea that many of them chose the events of 9/11 to claim as the basis for their disability brings further dishonor to themselves,” Bratton said.

The 106 defendants are being charged with varying degrees of grand larceny and attempted grand larceny and face a range of jail sentences if convicted.