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Financier shot himself in head after failed £50bn RBS takeover
Felix Allen11 Nov 2009
A multi-millionaire City financier shot himself in the head after leaving his job at the bank at the centre of a disastrous takeover by the Royal Bank of Scotland.
Huibert Boumeester, 49, killed himself after the £50 billion deal to buy ABN Amro plunged RBS and its then chief executive, Sir Fred Goodwin, into crisis. His body was found in woodland six days after he went missing in June.
The father-of-two, who was believed to have been earning £600,000 a year, wrote in a suicide note to his wife that he could not “go on any longer”.
Yesterday an inquest in Windsor concluded that the respected Dutch financier had taken his own life. It heard that Mr Boumeester had retired from his job on the board of ABN Amro in April 2008 and had decided to take a break from banking.
His CV revealed a glittering career, including as head of finance in firms in Europe, Asia and Singapore. He was also a director of three charities. In 2007 the financier was said to have picked up a million Euros bonus.
The family alerted the police after he failed to turn up for a job interview on 22 June. When officers entered his home in Belgravia they found his gun cabinet was empty with the key still in it.
Police tracked Mr Boumeester's last mobile phone signal before it ceased to operate to Windsor Forest in Berkshire. There had also been no transactions on his credit or bank cards.
A search was launched by the Metropolitan and Thames Valley police. Officers found Mr Boumeester's body in woodland at Winkfield on 28 June after dog walkers reported an abandoned Range Rover. Police constable Amy Tapping described finding an empty shotgun case on the back seat and then spotting a body 10 yards from the vehicle. It was sitting against a tree.
The shotgun was dug into the dirt and the barrel pointed at the banker's neck and contained one spent cartridge. His wife Frederique, who did not attend the hearing, said in her statement to the coroner that her husband had been diagnosed with depression in February and was seeing a psychiatrist but had been making “good progress”. She said: “He had suicidal thoughts but I thought those had gone. I thought he was starting to look for a new job.” The hearing also heard that in March Mr Boumeester went missing for several hours after driving from to woodland near Ascot.
In the note found on his body he blamed an “immeasurable depth of depression”. He was likely to have died on 21 June, the inquest heard.
Reader views (1)
Respect for the dead,but what a waste of life of a man who have a lots to live 4.
- Waheed, London, Peckham, South East, 11/11/2009 19:30
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