They’re the lowest of the low — retired city cops and firefighters who lied about getting sick after 9/11 to land fraudulent government subsidies — and now they’re going to have to pay back every red cent.
Manhattan prosecutors on Tuesday made the first move to seize nearly $22 million that 106 suspects allegedly gained from the twisted disability scam.
Noting that “there is extremely strong evidence . . . to support the charges,” the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office filed court papers seeking forfeiture proceedings, saying “there is legitimate concern’’ that the suspects will try to hide the dough.
The suspects include 80 cops and firefighters who retired with three-quarters-pay disability pensions from the city, then filed fraudulent Social Security applications to get more money, authorities said.
The suspects allegedly told the government that they were mentally unfit to hold any job, much less leave their homes, drive or even use a computer.
Some claimed they were sick in the head from working on the Ground Zero “pile” after 9/11 — but records show they were never there, officials said.
Some were later found to be teaching black-belt karate, piloting helicopters, jet-skiing, deep-sea fishing and traveling around the globe, officials said.
The martial-arts expert, ex-cop Louis Hurtado, netted the most — $470,395.20 between June 1989 and June 2013, authorities said.
Prosecutors have said that last week’s busts are just the tip of the iceberg. The lawmen said they expect to nail more perpetrators and estimated the total fraud at $400 million.
The scam was run by four ringleaders who recruited and coached the retirees in exchange for kickbacks, officials said.
Ex-cop Joseph Esposito and police-union employee John Minerva allegedly helped round up applicants. Esposito also is accused of blatantly coaching them to lie about their mental state on their applications.
Raymond Lavallee, a former FBI agent and ex-Nassau County prosecutor, was the lawyer who shuffled through the defendants’ final paperwork, which was prepared by disability adviser Thomas Hale, authorities said.
The documents noted that after the suspects’ arrests, authorities found $650,000 cash in Esposito’s safety-deposit box and another $62,000 at his home.
They also uncovered $325,000 in Minerva’s safety-deposit box and $60,000 in cash at his house.
Hale was nabbed with $51,000 cash at home, authorities said, and Lavallee had $6,000 at his house and another $2,000 in a safety-deposit box.
The legal-forfeiture maneuver came as prosecutors reeled yet another suspect into court for arraignment. Richard Cosentino, 49, a reputedly disabled former cop who posted a Facebook photo of himself sailfishing in Costa Rica, is accused of fraudulently taking in $207,639 in federal money — or more than $40,000 a year — since 2008.
Prosecutor Bryan Serino said Cosentino’s penchant for Facebook did him in.
“He told Social Security he could not travel,’’ Serino said. “The evidence shows he travels around the country and around the world: Costa Rica, Cayman Islands, Jamaica, Canada and Europe. The defendant also told Social Security he doesn’t drive [but] posted on Facebook picture after picture of himself driving cars.”
Cosentino was released on $10,000 bail, posted by celebrity bail bondsman Ira Judelson. Cosentino refused to comment.