It appears bitcoin’s recent turmoil has claimed its first life.
Autumn Radtke, a 28-year-old American CEO of bitcoin exchange firm First Meta, was found dead in her Singapore apartment on Feb. 28.
Local media are calling it a suicide, but Singapore officials are waiting for toxicology test results. Police are investigating the “unnatural death”.
Radtke formerly worked with Apple and other Silicon Valley tech firms on developing digital payment systems.
Autumn Radtke was found on the morning of February 26 after Police received an emergency call from an apartment building. She was pronounced dead at the scene. A preliminary police investigation has ruled out foul play, but neighbors told police they suspected Radtke jumped from an apartment.
First Meta Ltd. issued a statement on its website, saying they were ‘shocked and saddened’ by the news and gave their deepest condolences to Radtke’s family.
"The First Meta team is shocked and saddened by the tragic loss of our friend and CEO Autumn Radtke. Our deepest condolences go out to her family, friends and loved ones. Autumn was an inspiration to all of us and she will be sorely missed,” the statement said.
The death of the 28-year old followed a tumultuous week for the virtual currency. Mt.Gox, once bitcoin’s largest online exchange filed for bankruptcy on February 28 after $63 million worth of bitcoin went missing. The headline-grabbing currency has been shrouded in controversy since.
Prices fell sharply, and the day Mt.Gox closed, the cryptocurrency was listed at $565, less than half its value in November.
Neighbor and fellow bitcoin start-up entrepreneur Steve Beauregard lived in the same residential complex as Radtke and said her death wasn’t related to her business. Beauregard is the CEO and founder of GoCoin, a bitcoin processer started in April 2013.
"This wasn't a bitcoin-related death. She had other things going on in her life. Collectively, there were a lot of small factors. ... It appears she picked a permanent solution to a lot of short term problems,"Beauregard told Reuters.
Seams like some one is working hard to brake bitcoin after all the MSMedia published spin that bitcoin was dead.
Radtke’s death brings the number of questionable financial sector deaths this year to eight.
On Feb. 18 a 33-year-old JPMorgan finance pro leaped to his death the roof of the JPMorgan’s 30-story Hong Kong office tower.
Li Junjie’s suicide marked the third mysterious death of a JPMorgan banker. So far, there is no other known link between any of the deaths.
Gabriel Magee, 39, a vice president with the JPMorgan’s corporate and investment bank technology arm in the UK, also jumped to his death from the roof of the bank’s 33-story Canary Wharf tower in London on Jan. 28.
On Feb. 3, Ryan Henry Crane, 37, a JPM executive director who worked in New York, was found dead inside his Stamford, Conn., home.
A cause of death in Crane’s case has not be determined until a toxicology report is complete, according to a spokesperson for the Stamford detectives division.
The report is expected within two weeks.
Two other bankers have also taken their lives outside of JPMorgan.
On Jan. 31, Mike Dueker — the chief economist at Russell Investments and former Federal Reserve bank economist — was found dead at the side of a road that leads to the Tacoma Narrows Bridge in Washington state, according to the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department. He was 50.
On Jan. 26, William Broeksmit, 58, a former senior risk manager at Deutsche Bank, was found hanging in a house in South Kensington, according to London police.
Source:
http://nypost.com/2014/03/05/bitcoin-firm-ceo-found-dead-in-suspected-suicide/
http://rt.com/business/radtke-bitcoin-death-singapore-134/
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