Twin towers relatives 'will miss out on millions'

The relatives of those who died in the attacks of 11 September – including the families of 67 British victims – are likely to be denied hundreds of millions of dollars in compensation, the firm that lost more employees than any other company said yesterday.

Rules governing compensation were unfair and illegal, Cantor Fitzgerald, a New York brokerage firm, said. As a result, individual families could be deprived of up to a third of the compensation to which they were entitled.

"This applies to all the victims. It is not simply those who worked for Cantor," said a spokeswoman for the brokerage. "The discrepancy [between what families are offered and what we believe they are entitled to] can be very wide for some people."

Cantor Fitzgerald was based on floors 101, 103, 104 and 105 of the north tower of the World Trade Centre, and lost 658 staff, including 12 Britons. In all, about two thirds of its New York workforce were killed, so its views over the compensation are likely to carry more weight than most.

Its claims are contained within a formal report that the company submitted yesterday to the US government, which is providing federal funds to compensate the families of those who died in the attacks on New York and Washington.

The report – which took six months to prepare – says that the official overseeing the fund has set a cap on the amounts that can be paid out, violating the special legislation that established the fund.

Cantor Fitzgerald's general counsel, Stephen Merkel, said: "The regulations are wrong on so many levels because they are contrary to the statute."

The report uses the example of a 30-year-old broker earning $110,000 (£70,000) a year over the past three years. At the moment under the compensation formula his relatives would be entitled to about $3m but Cantor said they ought to receive $5m.