A reputed whistleblower who was reported to have turned over secret files about Deutsche Bank was identified as the man found dead this week on the campus of a Los Angeles high school, a police official told NBC News.
The body of Valentin Broeksmit, 46, was discovered at about 7 a.m. Monday at Woodrow Wilson High School in El Sereno, located northeast of downtown Los Angeles, LAPD Sgt. Rudy Perez said in an email to NBC News. Sgt. Perez said that he appeared to be homeless.
The coroner has not indicated a cause of death. Authorities do not suspect foul play, the Los Angeles Times reported, citing a LAPD captain. A final medical examiner's report is not expected until summer.
"This investigation is still on-going; however, no foul play is suspected at this time and based on the investigation, it appeared that Broeksmit was alone on the grounds of the school most of the weekend preceding his death," the LAP said in a statement. "The manner of Broeksmit’s death is pending a review of the investigation, along with the Coroner’s examination and toxicology results."
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Broeksmit disappeared a year ago after he was reported to have turned over secret files about Deutsche Bank to authorities.
The LAPD issued an April 19, 2021, statement asking for help in finding Broeksmit. He was last seen April 6, 2021, in Los Angeles' Griffith Park on Riverside Drive. His 2020 red Mini Cooper was recovered, but Broeksmit was not found, police said.
Who is whistleblower Valentin Broeksmit?
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In a 2019 profile, the New York Times reported that Broeksmit is the son of a Deutsche Bank executive who died by suicide in 2014. After his father's death, Broeksmit gained access to his father's email account and files related to the bank, the Times reported.
Federal and state authorities were scrutinizing allegations of criminal misconduct and the bank's long relationship with former President Donald Trump, the New York Times reported. Former President Trump's longtime bank revealed in August 2019 that it has tax records Congress sought in an investigation into his finances.
The U.S. House Intelligence Committee subpoenaed Broeksmit during its examination of Deutsche Bank and its relationship with Trump.
The documents were supplied to journalists, FBI investigators in New York, and Fusion GPS, the research firm linked to an unverified dossier about former President Trump, the Times reported.
Broeksmit was allowed to publicly identify himself as a cooperating witness in a federal criminal investigation after meeting with the FBI in Los Angeles, the Times reported.
The Times reporter who wrote the profile said Tuesday on Twitter that Broeksmit was a key character in his 2020 book, "Dark Towers: Deutsche Bank, Donald Trump, and an Epic Trail of Destruction."
