Deutsche Bank Whistleblower Vanishes(forensicnews.net)
forensicnews.net
Deutsche Bank Whistleblower Vanishes
https://forensicnews.net/deutsche-bank-whistleblower-vanishes/
66 comments
internet archive link : https://web.archive.org/web/20210424052632/https://forensicn...
Seems to be down for me
Works for me. (So not a general issue.)
Seems like the working version is overwritten by the newer archive
It's been scrubbed? Because there's no entry... This is sus.
Works for me as well.
Works for me now. Anyway, here's archive.is link as backup:
https://archive.is/71woB
https://archive.is/71woB
This link doesn't work either?
its showing
--- Hrm. The Wayback Machine has not archived that URL.
This page is not available on the web
because of server error ---
--- Hrm. The Wayback Machine has not archived that URL.
This page is not available on the web
because of server error ---
Another source: https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/new-york-times-journ...
Tweet about it with the missing persons report: https://twitter.com/rocco_castoro/status/1383286000923729924...
Tweet about it with the missing persons report: https://twitter.com/rocco_castoro/status/1383286000923729924...
hurril(3)
Relevant - tweets from David Enrich, the journalist he's been worked with. Most recent update 4/22, still missing.
https://twitter.com/davidenrich/status/1383206855263019009
https://twitter.com/davidenrich/status/1383206855263019009
Looks like the missing person’s tweets were pretty hostile towards David Enrich. Also in this podcast they’re not exactly friendly: https://anchor.fm/valentin-broeksmit/episodes/Val-Broeksmit-...
edit: see below, not suggesting foul play between the two
edit: see below, not suggesting foul play between the two
Those read tongue-in-cheek or in jest to me, not hostile.
https://mobile.twitter.com/BikiniRobotArmy
https://mobile.twitter.com/BikiniRobotArmy
> tongue-in-cheek or in jest
How so? I didn't get this interpretation at all, so I'm curious what you think.
How so? I didn't get this interpretation at all, so I'm curious what you think.
You are definitely misreading them. They are extremely angry towards that journalist.
I can see that angle as well.
I decided to look for more evidence, and found a previous article David wrote about Val for the NYT. [0] After reading it, my take is that the comments were hostile, but I don’t suspect any foul play between the two. Just two men who, despite not necessarily respecting the other, worked together to further their own agendas.
An excerpt:
“... the Broeksmit family have warned me that Mr. Broeksmit is not to be trusted, and, well, they might have a point. His drug use has sent him reeling between manias and stupors. He has a maddening habit of leaping to outrageous conclusions and then bending facts to fit far-fetched theories. He fantasizes about seeing his story told by Hollywood, and I sometimes wonder whether he’s manipulating me to achieve that ambition. He can be impatient, erratic and abusive. A few days ago, irate that he was not named in a blurb for my book on Amazon, among other perceived slights, he sent me a string of texts claiming that he’d taken out a brokerage account in my name and traded on secret information I’d supposedly fed him. (This is not true.) A little later, he left me a voice mail message saying it was all a joke.
Why do I put up with this? Because his trove of corporate emails, financial materials, boardroom presentations and legal reports is credible — even if he is not. “
Probably more relevant that his father was a Deutsch Bank exec who committed suicide, and he seemed to be shopping the leaks around for some time. Or that he was an apparent opioid user.
[0] https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/01/business/val-broeksmit-de...
I decided to look for more evidence, and found a previous article David wrote about Val for the NYT. [0] After reading it, my take is that the comments were hostile, but I don’t suspect any foul play between the two. Just two men who, despite not necessarily respecting the other, worked together to further their own agendas.
An excerpt:
“... the Broeksmit family have warned me that Mr. Broeksmit is not to be trusted, and, well, they might have a point. His drug use has sent him reeling between manias and stupors. He has a maddening habit of leaping to outrageous conclusions and then bending facts to fit far-fetched theories. He fantasizes about seeing his story told by Hollywood, and I sometimes wonder whether he’s manipulating me to achieve that ambition. He can be impatient, erratic and abusive. A few days ago, irate that he was not named in a blurb for my book on Amazon, among other perceived slights, he sent me a string of texts claiming that he’d taken out a brokerage account in my name and traded on secret information I’d supposedly fed him. (This is not true.) A little later, he left me a voice mail message saying it was all a joke.
Why do I put up with this? Because his trove of corporate emails, financial materials, boardroom presentations and legal reports is credible — even if he is not. “
Probably more relevant that his father was a Deutsch Bank exec who committed suicide, and he seemed to be shopping the leaks around for some time. Or that he was an apparent opioid user.
[0] https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/01/business/val-broeksmit-de...
[deleted]
I can't load the article, but I found this piece published by the Times in 2019: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/01/business/val-broeksmit-de...
It describes Broeksmit as "an unemployed rock musician with a history of opioid abuse and credit card theft," so his disappearance could have any number of explanations.
It describes Broeksmit as "an unemployed rock musician with a history of opioid abuse and credit card theft," so his disappearance could have any number of explanations.
And Broeksmit's response: https://threader.app/thread/1254006990440763393
(also here: https://twitter.com/BikiniRobotArmy/status/12540069904407633...)
(also here: https://twitter.com/BikiniRobotArmy/status/12540069904407633...)
FWIW, the author of that article posted this to Twitter April 16th [0]:
> Val Broeksmit @BikiniRobotArmy – a longtime source about Deutsche Bank – is missing.
> He was last seen on April 6 in Los Angeles, his girlfriend says. A missing persons report has been filed with @LAPDHQ.
> I am very worried about Val's safety. Please spread the word.
[0]: https://twitter.com/davidenrich/status/1383206855263019009
——————————
From the image in the followup tweet:
"He was last seen driving a 2020 red Mini Cooper. The vehicle has been recovered but he has not been seen since ..."
That doesn't sound too good.
> Val Broeksmit @BikiniRobotArmy – a longtime source about Deutsche Bank – is missing.
> He was last seen on April 6 in Los Angeles, his girlfriend says. A missing persons report has been filed with @LAPDHQ.
> I am very worried about Val's safety. Please spread the word.
[0]: https://twitter.com/davidenrich/status/1383206855263019009
——————————
From the image in the followup tweet:
"He was last seen driving a 2020 red Mini Cooper. The vehicle has been recovered but he has not been seen since ..."
That doesn't sound too good.
The NYT is mostly shills and this is a perfect example...puts out an article discrediting the whistleblower rather than frame the negativity towards the big corrupt bank with lots of NYC connections.
And now you use the shill hit piece as a source when the guy goes missing.
And now you use the shill hit piece as a source when the guy goes missing.
What is the connection between NY and Berlin?
Russia. Russia is the connection. Organized crime at the political level.
Russia. Russia is the connection. Organized crime at the political level.
Yup, the multiple felonious banks like DB, HSBC, and JPM that are still allowed to operate with slaps on wrists from US/German/British/etc regulators that are fractions of the profits received (and continued cash flows) from felonious activities all trace back to Russian control. No other explanations/theories of what is going on here are possible.
No I mean all world banks have a presence in NYC bc it's the finance capital of the world. NY Times in reality is a shill shop who caters to big money and in-vogue politics.
Russia's not as bad as the media makes them out to be.
Russia's not as bad as the media makes them out to be.
I think you mean "any number of alibis".
One wonders who the assassins for hire are. Some powerful people, somewhere, are able to dispatch modern day assassins. Those assassins must have some sort of way of... advertising themselves. It's an interesting problem, since clearly they are doing this for some sort of compensation, i.e. it's a business.
Sometimes, reality is stranger than fiction. It'd be interesting to know what the inner workings look like.
Of course, one can't rule out the mundane explanation, that he went missing with his car keys in the ignition because he decided to get out and vanish for no apparent reason, without informing his girlfriend, and without using any of his credit cards that would immediately lead authorities to his location.
Sometimes, reality is stranger than fiction. It'd be interesting to know what the inner workings look like.
Of course, one can't rule out the mundane explanation, that he went missing with his car keys in the ignition because he decided to get out and vanish for no apparent reason, without informing his girlfriend, and without using any of his credit cards that would immediately lead authorities to his location.
Back in the day you had it openly advertised in Soldier of Fortune magazine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soldier_of_Fortune_(magazine)#... Nowadays you probably track friends of friends from the military.
No one in their right mind would advertise themselves. It all stays "in the family". Do a job for your multi-millionaire friend, if you don't break you become the go-to guy for said friend and his friends.
Alternatively, the assassins/kidnappers are just people down on luck, in debt, addicted to drugs. They take care of the problem, then you take care of them... one way or another.
Alternatively, the assassins/kidnappers are just people down on luck, in debt, addicted to drugs. They take care of the problem, then you take care of them... one way or another.
Cartels have plenty not too far from LA. But after Epstein dying in jail I’m convinced anything is possible.
Oh yeah, I always wondered about those kinds of gangs/cartels that barely even try to hide. Could one just walk in and place an "order"? Seems pretty risky, even if they agree, you might end up owing them (or rather, being owned by them) forever.
I live in a country with extensive cartel activity, and can safely tell you that there's no need for them to hire specialized assassins from some shadowy international network. Instead, they simply use their own psychopathic people to get the job done as requested. Quality of killer (or group of killers) will depend entirely on how difficult the target is. The cartels have MANY members, direct members, who can be found for jobs of variable difficulty: a few random jacked up sicarios to spray a bar full of people where some low-level target who pissed them off is drinking, or for more protected targets in higher-level settings, a couple of ex military or ex police types (also very often employed by cartels as active members) who know how to use weapons well and with more subtlety, and target someone after some careful surveillance. Both happen often and sometimes a mix of the two kinds of killers is used, or other methods such as explosives..
Furthermore, nobody in their right mind would try to use such a favor against their cartel bosses as leverage. The police would likely never touch the case or care about it at all and the cartel bosses are in any case usually well known in ways that make new accusations of murder irrelevant, and very easily capable of butchering whichever random hired killer did indeed try to threaten them somehow.
Furthermore, nobody in their right mind would try to use such a favor against their cartel bosses as leverage. The police would likely never touch the case or care about it at all and the cartel bosses are in any case usually well known in ways that make new accusations of murder irrelevant, and very easily capable of butchering whichever random hired killer did indeed try to threaten them somehow.
Damn, I'm from ex-USSR but even we never had this kind of stuff (Russia did, however).
Bribes, intimidation and murder happened quite often (and still does), but it's hidden, few dare to do it out in the open, in broad daylight and/or with rifles/explosives.
Silver lining of the police being the biggest gang, heh.
Bribes, intimidation and murder happened quite often (and still does), but it's hidden, few dare to do it out in the open, in broad daylight and/or with rifles/explosives.
Silver lining of the police being the biggest gang, heh.
Lol no. But when you’ve been laundering money for them for years what introduction is needed?
What are you basing this on?
Probably the number of times using the dark web for an assassin immediately gets people arrested?
It's basically all honeypots.
It doesn't make sense to generate a potential electronic trail when you can keep it all person to person, hard to prove and distant from yourself without needing to invoke the technical knowhow of not getting caught on the dark web.
It's basically all honeypots.
It doesn't make sense to generate a potential electronic trail when you can keep it all person to person, hard to prove and distant from yourself without needing to invoke the technical knowhow of not getting caught on the dark web.
Or it could be governments returning a favor. Remember the "backdoor" channel Kushner talked about with Russia?
It's hard to imagine a situation in which a normal person would want to find a hitman where some law enforcement agency dedicated to posing as false customers wouldn't be able to find them first. And the opposite side of the equation seems like it would be easy to cover as well, with law enforcement posing as hitmen. Just ask Tim Lambesis how the process plays out.
I imagine that the only way that it works in practicality is through existing networks among extremely high net worth or government entities. I don't imagine it's easily possible to enter the network inorganically.
I imagine that the only way that it works in practicality is through existing networks among extremely high net worth or government entities. I don't imagine it's easily possible to enter the network inorganically.
One wonders who the assassins for hire are.
With the exception of the utility the story might provide to finding this guy or his body, it's low value as a news item at the moment. It's fun to speculate, but ultimately pointless until there's more data.
There certainly are assassins. I recommend spending some time on liveleak. You'll get a healthy appreciation for civil society, and see some things you wish you'd never seen.
I remember someone in some sort of law enforcement position in some other country. The security camera footage showed two assassins come in with AKs and mow everyone in the room. The security guard standing by the door tried to run out behind them, but he was shot too. One assassin accidentally shot the other, but not fatally. He limped out. The target's wife was with him, and they both died.
I think the novelty of it is that this sort of thing, to us, only happens in foreign countries, not the mighty united states. Articles such as this one cast doubt on that theory.
I remember someone in some sort of law enforcement position in some other country. The security camera footage showed two assassins come in with AKs and mow everyone in the room. The security guard standing by the door tried to run out behind them, but he was shot too. One assassin accidentally shot the other, but not fatally. He limped out. The target's wife was with him, and they both died.
I think the novelty of it is that this sort of thing, to us, only happens in foreign countries, not the mighty united states. Articles such as this one cast doubt on that theory.
My comment is about the lack of hard evidence, not the existence of assassins. While half the internet works themselves into an orgasmic frenzy of conspiracy theories, it's still possible the person in question killed himself, got
lost in the woods, took a road trip without telling anyone, fell down the side of a mountain while hiking, overdosed on heroin, got in a fistfight while drunk...
Or David Galed-himself to "prove" that the banks hire assassins when someone speaks against them...
That goes against Occam's Razor. Whistleblower of a powerful bank mafia goes missing, simplest explanation: killed.
That goes against Occam's Razor.
Maybe someone assassinated him, maybe he had a heart attack. There are plenty of plausible scenarios.
His car was found abandoned with the engine running. He was murdered.
Most exciting explanation that confirms your biases isn’t necessarily the most likely explanation.
Exciting? If anything this is depressing. How people throw around the word "conspiracy" in an attempt to sound smart and disregard(or even dissuade to consider) the most plausible explanation.
Bias? Whistleblower of a mafia goes missing and your first thought is that he commited suicide? Please, you lack intellectual honesty.
Bias? Whistleblower of a mafia goes missing and your first thought is that he commited suicide? Please, you lack intellectual honesty.
"Not on the internet"
I doubt multinational corporations are hiring assassins from the dark web.
I suspect if they are using assassins for hire it's most likely a person to person networking effort: They have a rich friend who has ties to shady ex-army guys etc.
No paper trail. No electronic receipts. Nearly no chance of anything legally provable. A minimum of 2+ degrees of separation etc.
I doubt it's Assassins As A Service: it's just knowing how to find a guy who for 100k doesn't ask questions and can't answer any if he's caught.
I doubt multinational corporations are hiring assassins from the dark web.
I suspect if they are using assassins for hire it's most likely a person to person networking effort: They have a rich friend who has ties to shady ex-army guys etc.
No paper trail. No electronic receipts. Nearly no chance of anything legally provable. A minimum of 2+ degrees of separation etc.
I doubt it's Assassins As A Service: it's just knowing how to find a guy who for 100k doesn't ask questions and can't answer any if he's caught.
Rich people tend to hang out toghether at the same places. Some get rich by having companies, others get rich by doing illegal stuff. So you could definitely find the right connections in those circles if you want to.
In Germany there was the "Berlin bank scandal" [1], which is one of the reasons of the dire financial situation the city of Berlin is in nowadays (not the only one though). There the head of IT of one of the involved companies, Aubius, was found dead (hanged) in the Grunewald. He was cooperating with law enforcement.
This has a similar vibe to me.
[1]: https://www.dw.com/en/finance-scandal-did-berlin-bank-use-en...
This has a similar vibe to me.
[1]: https://www.dw.com/en/finance-scandal-did-berlin-bank-use-en...
Didn't know that. Thanks for sharing.
Seems the database has vanished too
> "When you hear hoofbeats behind you, don't expect to see a zebra" [0]
But who knows anymore if a whistleblower disappearing is a horse or a zebra?
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zebra_(medicine)
But who knows anymore if a whistleblower disappearing is a horse or a zebra?
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zebra_(medicine)
The website also vanished
Site is now down.
I read David Enrich's book, Dark Towers. It was an easy read and he developed a close relationship with Val because he became a great source for the book. The book gave me the impression that Val likes spontaneity and doesn't seem to have much direction in his life.