- Gabriel Magee, a 39-year-old JP Morgan bank executive, died this morning after he threw himself off the top of the bank’s European headquarters
- On Sunday, former Deutsche Bank senior manager, William ‘Bill’ Broeksmit, 58, was found hanging in his home in South Kensington
- Both deaths have been ruled non-suspicious by the Metropolitan Police
- Magee had lived in London for seven years after transferring from the Unites States with JP Morgan
- Broeksmit had been in London many years but still owned an apartment in an exclusive Central Park building in New York
- Both were thought highly of by their bosses and colleagues, sources said
ByMartin Robinsonand Mark Duelland Kieran Corcoran
PUBLISHED: 16:46 EST, 28 January 2014
Two top ranking American bankers working in senior positions in London have committed suicide in the space of two days.
Gabriel Magee, a 39-year-old JP Morgan bank executive, died early this morning after he jumped 500ft from the top of the bank’s European headquarters. His body was discovered on the ninth floor roof, which surrounds the 33-story Canary Wharf skyscraper.
Just two days earlier, on Sunday, fellow American banker, William ‘Bill’ Broeksmit, 58, was found hanging in his South Kensington home.
Broeksmit – who retired last February – was a former senior manager at Deutsche Bank and had lived in London many years. He started working for the bank in 1996 but left for a period of 7 years before returning in 2008.
Magee was a vice president in the corporate and investment bank technology department having joined JP Morgan in 2004 and moved with the bank from the U.S. to Britain in 2007.
Magee was named in an email sent to all JP Morgan staff Tuesday afternoon.
A company spokesman said: ‘We are deeply saddened to have lost a member of the J.P. Morgan family at 25 Bank Street today. Our thoughts and sympathy are with his family and his friends’.
A source close to Magee said he was in ‘good standing with his bosses and colleagues. He was well liked.’
Scotland Yard said they were called to 25 Bank Street at 8.02 a.m. and detectives are not treating the death as suspicious.
‘No arrests have been made and the incident is being treated as non-suspicious at this early stage’, a spokesman for the Metropolitan Police said.
Canary Wharf workers were in shock today, with one trader telling MailOnline that his body lay on the flat roof until around midday.
‘My colleague yelled that he could see that someone had jumped from the top of the building onto a lower roof. His body lay there uncovered for at least two hours,’ he said.
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‘Hundreds were looking out of their windows at him.
‘It was bonus week at JP Morgan last week so I hope it wasn’t to do with that’.
Another Canary Wharf worker who could see where the man fell told the Evening Standard: ‘It’s upsetting what’s happened but the thought of somebody lying up there for four hours is awful.
‘I got into the office at about 8.10 and the body was on the floor and there were police up there, and they put a white cover on him.
‘I think he was in a suit. As far as I could see the was dressed appropriately, but there was quite a lot of blood, so me and my colleagues were a bit upset.’
Others tweeted that what they saw this morning.
Amie Hughes-Gage said: ‘Just watched the police finally remove that poor bankers body 4 and half hours later with only a white sheet over him.’
Hetal Patel tweeted: ‘The 9th floor roof of JP Morgan is visible from my office window. For a long time the body was left cordoned & unattended’.
Another wrote online: ‘It’s not a nice view from my building. The body is on the rooftop of level 9. So sad’.
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+12An air ambulance was sent to the scene but the man could not be saved.
‘We were called to Bank Street to reports of a person fallen form a height’, London Ambulance Service spokesman said:
‘We sent one ambulance crew, a duty officer, our hazardous area response team and London Air Ambulance to the scene.
‘Sadly a man in his 30s was pronounced dead at the scene.’
JP Morgan’s building has been the headquarters of the bank’s Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) operation since July 2012.
It used to be owned by Lehman Brothers until its collapse in 2008, and the area houses the headquarters of other banking giants including HSBC and Barclays.
The horrific tragedy came hot on the heels of the shock death of of Broeksmit Sunday, who apparently had close ties to co-chief executive Anshu Jain.
Jain and fellow co-chief executive Juergen Fitschen said in an internal memo: ‘He was considered by many of his peers to be among the finest minds in the fields of risk and capital management. ‘We are deeply saddened by Bill’s death. He was a dear friend and colleague to many of us who benefitted from his intellect and wisdom.
‘Our thoughts and condolences are with his wife and family at this time. We will remember him for his contributions to Deutsche Bank, thoughtful advice and personal friendship.’
Broeksmit worked in investment banking - specifically risk and securities – and lived on exclusive Evelyn Gardens in South Kensington, which has an average property value of £1.9million.
He is also registered to a high-value property a stone’s throw from New York’s Central Park.
Broeksmit’s name appears on U.S. government records for the Broeksmit Family Foundation, which is based in the palatial 1185 Park Avenue building.
The three-bedroom, three-bathroom apartment to which he is linked was worth $4,500,000 when it was last sold in June 2000.
He worked at Deutsche Bank from 1996 to 2001, then from 2008 until he retired. Broeksmit was also employed by Merrill Lynch for a period.
Broeksmit was one of around 100 bankers who left Merrill Lynch for Deutsche when its investment banking arm was founded in the 1990s.
He was involved in the process of rescuing the bank in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, when many investment banks found their debts were ‘toxic’, and unlikely ever to be repaid.
Broeksmit, a renowned risk expert, assisted the bank’s efforts to shift the worst of the debt, and reduce its total amount of lending.
Chiefs at Deutsche Bank had planned to promote Broeksmit to its management board in 2012, but stopped when the German financial regulator expressed doubts about his experience as a leader.
Scotland Yard confirmed only that a 58-year-old man was found hanged.
A spokesman said: ‘Police were called at 12.35 p.m. on Sunday to a man found hanging at Evelyn Gardens, SW7.
‘Kensington and Chelsea police, ambulance and air ambulance all attended. A 58-year-old man was declared dead at the scene. The death is being treated as non-suspicious.’
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Suicide Among Bankers Appears To Be On The Rise Again As Pressures To Get Banks And Businesses Back In The Black Takes Its Toll
By Christopher Harress - on September 04 2013 8:54 AM
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JPM Sees 28% Withdrawal From Gold Vault In One Day As Another 10 Tons Depart
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Last weekend Drudge twitted: Have an exit plan…— MATT DRUDGE (@DRUDGE) January 24, 2014
Advice or Warning? I made a couple of minor plans some time back – the rest I turn over to God. I’m certainly not going to worry despite the fact that Enron (and a couple of others) initial spiral came from their London offices.
