The alleged scam spanned more than two decades, with law enforcement officers and firefighters coached on how to behave during doctor visits in order to qualify for full disability benefits, officials said.

"As a New Yorker, as a U.S. citizen, I can only express disgust at the actions of these individuals involved in this scheme, particularly the 72 former members of the New York City Police Department who have certainly disgraced themselves, embarrassed their families, with their abuse of this system," Police Commissioner William Bratton said at a news conference. "The idea that many of them chose the events of 9/11 to claim as the basis of the disability brings further dishonor to themselves."

The defendants received up to $50,000 a year because, they claimed, they were no longer able to work, officials said. Many of the claims allegedly involved work-related trauma caused by the 9/11 terror attacks. The 9/11-related claims alone totaled hundreds of thousands of dollars.

All the defendants pleaded not guilty Tuesday, according to the Manhattan district attorney's office.

The main defendants were identified as Raymond Lavallee, 83, a lawyer and former FBI agent and Nassau County prosecutor; Thomas Hale, 89, a disability consultant; John Minerva, 61, a union official for the Detectives' Endowment Association; and Joseph Esposito, 64, a retired police officer. Lavallee also was chief of the rackets bureau in the Nassau County District Attorney's office.

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