Banker Explains Why He Committed Suicide Zero Hedge March 26, 2014
The dismal list of financial executive deaths has recently increased to 11 in the last few months. Speculation has surrounded many of these deaths (and suicides) as to the reasoning; none more than the first – William Broeksmit, an executive who worked in Deutsche Bank’s risk function and advised senior leadership who hanged himself in his South Kensington home in late January. However, as the WSJ reports, we now know why this poor man felt compelled to take his own life: he was “anxious about various authorities investigating areas of the bank where he worked” (and yes, we are well aware of the grammatical and temporal impossibilities suggested by this article’s title). Via WSJ, While a Deutsche Bank spokeswoman said Tuesday that “Bill was not under suspicion of wrongdoing in any matter,” according to statements read at a coroner’s inquest in London, the former senior executive at Deutsche Bank, who committed suicide in late January, was concerned about investigations into the German bank. William Broeksmit, an executive who worked in the bank’s risk function and advised the firm’s senior leadership, was “anxious about various authorities investigating areas of the bank where he worked,” according to written evidence from his psychologist, given Tuesday at an inquest at London’s Royal Courts of Justice. Mr. Broeksmit, an American born in Chicago who retired from Deutsche Bank in February 2013, hanged himself at his London home on Jan. 26, according to a statement read at the coroner’s inquest. A close colleague of Deutsche Bank co-Chief Executive Anshu Jain, Mr. Broeksmit was expected to be appointed the bank’s chief risk officer in 2012, but the move was vetoed by
BaFin, the German financial regulator, because of a lack of suitable experience, people familiar with the matter said at the time. Ms. Wilcox, citing written medical evidence from Mr. Broeksmit’s doctor and psychologist, said the executive was sleeping badly during the summer of 2013, and his “selfesteem had been greatly undermined.” He was also trying to stop smoking cigars and his alcohol intake was high, according to a medical report. Here are all the recent untimely financial professional deaths we have witnessed in recent months: 1 – William Broeksmit, 58-year-old former senior executive at Deutsche Bank AG, was found dead in his home after an apparent suicide in South Kensington in central London, on January 26th. 2 – Karl Slym, 51 year old Tata Motors managing director Karl Slym, was found dead on the fourth floor of the Shangri-La hotel in Bangkok on January 27th. 3 – Gabriel Magee, a 39-year-old JP Morgan employee, died after falling from the roof of the JP Morgan European headquarters in London on January 27th. 4 – Mike Dueker, 50-year-old chief economist of a US investment bank was found dead close to the Tacoma Narrows Bridge in Washington State. 5 – Richard Talley, the 57 year old founder of American Title Services in Centennial, Colorado, was found dead earlier this month after apparently shooting himself with a nail gun. 6 – Tim Dickenson, a U.K.-based communications director at Swiss Re AG, also died last month, however the circumstances surrounding his death are still unknown. 7 – Ryan Henry Crane, a 37 year old executive at JP Morgan died in an alleged suicide just a few weeks ago. No details have been released about his death aside from this small obituary announcement at the Stamford Daily Voice. 8 – Li Junjie, 33-year-old banker in Hong Kong jumped from the JP Morgan HQ in Hong Kong this week. 9 – James Stuart Jr, Former National Bank of Commerce CEO, found dead in Scottsdale, Ariz., the morning of Feb. 19. A family spokesman did not say whatcaused the death 10 – Edmund (Eddie) Reilly, 47, a trader at Midtown’s Vertical Group, commited suicide by jumping in front of LIRR train 11 – Kenneth Bellando, 28, a trader at Levy Capital, formerly investment banking analyst at JPMorgan, jumped to his death from his 6th floor East Side apartment. One can only wonder how many of these unfortunate deaths were due to the similar “investigation” concerns.
Apple, Google, Microsoft, NFL: Suicide By Greed Jon Rappoport Prison Planet.com March 26, 2014
The old movie line, “Stop me before I kill again,” comes to mind. In this case, however, it’s “Stop me before I kill myself.” PandoDaily has uncovered a wide-ranging scandal among tech giants. It’s basically an illegal scheme to limit wages by agreeing not to lure employees away from each other with the promise of higher salaries (see also this link). Companies involved? At first, just a few. But Pando has found evidence that many giants are in on the scheme, and “all told, the combined workforces of the companies involved totals well over a million employees.” The companies? Google, Apple, Microsoft, Pixar, Intuit, Lucasfilm, IBM, Dell, eBay, Comcast, Clear Channel, Dreamworks, Adobe, Genentech. That’s quite a list. Obviously, these corporations fear dents in their bottom-line, because prior to wage-fixing agreements, they were engaged in escalating bidding wars to grab employees from each other. “They’re only paying you X over there? We’ll offer you X plus 100!” Well, whose fault is that? Who created the problem in the first place? The companies themselves, through their willingness to pay wild amounts of money to prospective talent. It was nobody’s fault but their own. You see the same problem in pro sports. The National Football League, the National Basketball Association, Major League Baseball. Bidding wars for players. Salaries through the roof.
So the team owners agree to various wage-fixing schemes, including paying fines, “luxury taxes,” for excessive payrolls. Television networks have gotten into the act, too. In their competition to sign contracts to broadcast the games, they’re paying out billions to these sports leagues. And therefore, the networks have to turn around and charge outlandish prices to corporations who want to advertise during the games. Some of these corporations are now opting out of sponsorship. They can’t afford it. For those who can, for example, cough up $4 million for a single 30-second ad during the Super Bowl, there is yet another level of insane competition: who produced the most creative commercial? Yes, there are post-game rankings of these ads published every year. In a final irony, Communicas has published a study showing that only one out of five Super Bowl ads results in the sale of a product. It’s apparently the “creativity” of the ad that makes the TV viewer fail to associate the ad with the brand name of the sponsor. Beautiful. Escalating greed eventually has consequences. Meanwhile, a McDonald’s tries to figure out how little they can pay their employees and keep them alive enough to show up for work. Selling a trillion toxic burgers a day doesn’t quite result in sufficient profits. I don’t want to get into the pharmaceutical cartel, because I’ll be here all day. But as I recently wrote, Gilead Sciences’ new blockbuster-selling drug, Sovaldi, costs $84,000 for a 12-week treatment. That’s a 1000 dollars a pill. Sovaldi treats hepatitis C. The late ABC News reporter, Nick Regush, one of the last true mainstream investigative medical reporters in America, offered evidence that the virus “causing” hepatitis C was a complete fake. It had never been isolated and identified as existing at all. Regush challenged researchers to a public debate. No one took him up on it. A thousand dollars a pill to kill a virus that doesn’t exist. Now, that’s a business strategy for the ages. This post originally appeared at www.nomorefakenews.com
Harry Reid To Return Campaign Funds Paid To Granddaughter For ‘Holiday Gifts’ William Bigelow Breitbart March 26, 2014
Forced by the Federal Election Commission to explain where $17,000 from his campaign went, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid acknowledged giving the money to his granddaughter for “holiday gifts” in late 2013, and finally reimbursed the money to his campaign. The FEC sent the treasurer for Friends of Harry Reid a letter asserting that the treasurer “must include a brief statement or description … to clarify the following description: ‘holiday gifts.’” Reid’s campaign operation had listed the “holiday gifts” as two separate payments to Ryan Elisabeth of Berkley, Calif., on Oct. 23, 2013. One payment amounted to $5,416.93; the other was $11,370.00. “Ryan Elisabeth” refers to Ryan Elisabeth Reid, 23, Reid’s granddaughter. Reid released a statement in which he said, “I thought it would be nice to give supporters and staff thank-you gifts that had a personal connection and a Searchlight connection. But I have decided to reimburse the campaign for the amount of the expenditure.” The Friends of Harry Reid campaign stated that it filled out the Schedule B form in question properly, but the FEC has insisted Reid’s team clarify it by April 25 or there will be “an audit or enforcement action.” Chris Anderson, a spokesman for Reid, said, “The report is accurate, the expenditure was for holiday gifts. The campaign complied with all FEC rules.” The FEC lists "examples of inadequate purposes" as a warning to campaigns of what language is inappropriate to explain disbursements. One item on the list is "gifts." Reid’s reimbursement may not excuse his campaign of reporting a more full explanation to the FEC. Harry Reid to Return Campaign Funds Paid to Granddaughter for ‘Holiday Gifts’ VIDEO BELOW http://www.infowars.com/harry-reid-to-return
INFOWARS.COM BECAUSE THERE'S A WAR ON FOR YOUR MIND