They are bankers, usually in senior positions, well paid, pretty girlfriends/wives, have a nice lifestyle and appear to be content with life. Yet this is a typical profile of a spate of suicides amongst bankers. During the last two years a total of 48 bankers took their lives in a period where financial markets were relatively calm. Already this year three bankers have taken their lives. The list of top level bankers dying under suspicious circumstances has been growing rapidly in recent months.
Who would have thought that a job in banking would be so risky? This is no joke. Banking has become one of the most dangerous industries to be involved in, with an extremely high death per employee ratio.
The causes of death have been rather strange. For example, one banker shot himself eight times with a nail gun, another ran over himself with his own Sport Utility Vehicle.
Nobody doubts that the global financial system has been under enormous strain and perhaps still is. We are in uncharted territory.
But what should we read into this? Have these people just buckled under the strain, reached their breaking point and topped themselves, or have they had a peek into something we cannot see?
Alternatively, is there something more sinister at work?
Below is a list of top level bankers who killed themselves last year in 2014 with a brief description of their cause of death, you make your mind up.
DEAD (48)
July – Julian Knott, 45, JPMorgan Executive Director,Global Tier 3 Network Operations, SELF-INFLICTED GUNSHOT WOUND
June – Richard Gravino, 49, Application Team Lead, JP Morgan, SUDDEN DEATH cause unknown/pending
June – James McDonald – President & CEO of Rockefeller & Co – apparently self-inflicted, GUNSHOT WOUND
May – Thomas Schenkman, 42, Managing Director of Global Infrastructure, JP Morgan, SUDDEN DEATH, cause unknown/pending
May – Naseem Mubeen – Assistant Vice President ZBTL Bank, Islamabad, SUICIDE jumped
May – Daniel Leaf – senior manager at the Bank of Scotland/Saracen Fund Managers, FELL OFF A CLIFF
May – Nigel Sharvin – Senior Relationship Manager Ulster Bank manage portfolio of distressed businesses, ACCIDENTAL DROWNING
April – Lydia (no surname given) 52, France’s Bred-Banque-Populaire, SUICIDE jumped
April – Li Jianhua, 49, Non-bank Financial Institutions Supervision Department of the regulator, HEART ATTACK
April – Benedict Philippens, Director/Manager Bank Ans-Saint-Nicolas, SHOT
April – Tanji Dewberry – Assistant Vice President, Credit Suisse, HOUSE FIRE
April – Amir Kess, co-founder and managing director Markstone Capital Group private equity fund, CYCLIST HIT BY CAR
April – Juergen Frick, Bank Frick & Co. AG, SHOT
April – Jan Peter Schmittmann – former CEO of Dutch Bank ABN Amro, (Possibly suicide, SHOT)
April – Andrew Jarzyk – Assistant Vice President, Commercial Banking at PNC Financial Services Group, MISSING/DEAD
March – Mohamed Hamwi – System Analyst at Trepp, a financial data and analytics firm, SHOT
March – Joseph Giampapa – JP Morgan lawyer, CYCLIST HIT BY MINIVAN
March – Kenneth Bellandro, former JP Morgan, SUICIDE jumped
Feb – John Ruiz – Morgan Stanley Municipal Debt Analyst, died suddenly, NO CAUSE GIVEN
Feb – Jason Alan Salais, 34, Information Technology specialist at JPMorgan, FOUND DEAD outside a Walgreens pharmacy
Feb – Autumn Radtke, CEO of First Meta, a cyber-currency exchange firm, SUICIDE
Feb – James Stuart Jr, Former National Bank of Commerce CEO, FOUND DEAD
Feb – Edmund (Eddie) Reilly, trader at Midtown’s Vertical Group, SUICIDE
Feb – Li Junjie, JP Morgan, SUICIDE
Feb – Ryan Henry Crane, SUDDEN DEATH cause unknown
Feb – Richard Talley, UNKNOWN CAUSE
Jan – Gabriel Magee, SUICIDE
Jan – William ‘Bill’ Broeksmit, HUNG/POSSIBLE SUICIDE
Jan – Mike Dueker, SUDDEN DEATHcause unknown
Jan – Carl Slym, SUICIDE
Jan – Tim Dickenson, SUDDEN DEATH cause unknown
Dec 2013 – Robert Wilson, a retired hedge fund founder, apparent SUICIDE leaped to his death from his 16th floor residence
Dec 2013 – Joseph M. Ambrosio, age 34, Financial Analyst for J.P. Morgan, died suddenly from Acute Respiratory Syndrome
Dec 2013 – Benjamin Idim, CAR ACCIDENT
Dec 2013 – Susan Hewitt – Deutsche Bank, DROWNING
Nov 2013 – Patrick Sheehan, CAR ACCIDENT
Nov 2013 – Michael Anthony Turner, Career Banker, CAUSE UNKOWN
Nov 2013 – Venera Minakhmetova Former Financial Analyst at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, CYCLIST HIT
Oct 2013 – Michael Burdin, SUICIDE
Oct 2013 – Ezdehar Husainat – former JP Morgan banker, killed in FREAK ACCIDENT when her SUV crushed her to death
Sept 2013 – Guy Ratovondrahona -Madagascar central bank, Sudden death – cause not confirmed
Aug 2013 – Pierre Wauthier, SUICIDE
Aug 2013 – Moritz Erhardt, SUICIDE
July 2013 Hussain Najadi CEO of merchant bank AIAK Group, SHOT
July 2013 Carsten Schloter, SUICIDE
July 2013 Sascha Schornstein – RBS in its commodity finance, MISSING
April 2013 David William Waygood, SUICIDE
Mar 2013 – David Rossi – communications director of troubled Italian bank Monte dei Paschi di Siena (MPS), SUICIDE
Now the latest, Chris Van Eeghen, described as a cheerful Dutch banker, the head of ABN's corporate finance and capital markets. He "had a great reputation" at work, came from an "illustrious family", and enjoyed national fame briefly as the boyfriend of a famous actress/model. As one colleague noted, "he was always cheerful, good mood, and apparently he had everything your heart desired. He never sat in the pit, never was down, so I was extremely surprised. I cannot understand."
There is a familiar thread that goes through all these cases, that being that none of those who committed suicide gave an indication that they were planning to take their lives. But in Chris Van Eeghens there was something even more eerie. Apparently, a colleague had noticed that he had recently changed his job status on Facebook to "former".
This one has got to be for Sherlock Holmes.
0 comments:
Post a Comment