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.<p>This has a similar vibe to me.<p>[1]: <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/finance-scandal-did-berlin-bank-use-enron-like-methods/a-615494" rel="nofollow">https://www.dw.com/en/finance-scandal-did-berlin-bank-use-en...</a>
Relevant - tweets from David Enrich, the journalist he's been worked with. Most recent update 4/22, still missing.<p><a href="https://twitter.com/davidenrich/status/1383206855263019009" rel="nofollow">https://twitter.com/davidenrich/status/1383206855263019009</a>
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.<p>Sometimes, reality is stranger than fiction. It'd be interesting to know what the inner workings look like.<p>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.
Another source: <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/new-york-times-journalist-deutsche-bank-source-missing" rel="nofollow">https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/new-york-times-journ...</a><p>Tweet about it with the missing persons report: <a href="https://twitter.com/rocco_castoro/status/1383286000923729924?s=21" rel="nofollow">https://twitter.com/rocco_castoro/status/1383286000923729924...</a>
I can't load the article, but I found this piece published by the Times in 2019: <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/01/business/val-broeksmit-deutsche-bank-trump-whistle-blower.html" rel="nofollow">https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/01/business/val-broeksmit-de...</a><p>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.
internet archive link : <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20210424052632/https://forensicnews.net/deutsche-bank-whistleblower-vanishes/" rel="nofollow">https://web.archive.org/web/20210424052632/https://forensicn...</a>
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.
> "When you hear hoofbeats behind you, don't expect to see a zebra" [0]<p>But who knows anymore if a whistleblower disappearing is a horse or a zebra?<p>[0] <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zebra_(medicine)" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zebra_(medicine)</a>