A whistleblower who worked with federal authorities investigating ties between Deutsche Bank and former President Donald Trump has been found dead in California.
The body of Valentin Broeksmit, 45, was found on the Woodrow Wilson High School campus off on the 4500 block of Multnomah Street on Monday, according to the Los Angeles County coroner's office.
He was pronounced dead at 7 a.m., reported CBS.
Broeksmit was reported missing last year, with the Los Angeles Police Department saying he was last seen on April 6, 2021 around 4 p.m., at Griffith Park on Riverside Drive driving a 2020 red Mini Cooper.
Despite being reported missing, Broeksmit's Twitter account remained active, with his last tweet uploading a photo of himself being sent on April 5.
Journalist Scott Stedman, who works for the Forensic News website, also confirmed Broeksmit's death in a tweet.
"He supplied me and other journalists with Deutsche Bank documents that highlighted the bank's deep Russia connections," Stedman wrote. "It is very sad. I don't suspect foul play. Val struggled with drugs on and off.
"In truth, I hadn't talked to Val since January and before that many more months. I wish I had."
In 2019, Broeksmit was reported to have handed over hundreds of documents to the FBI while they were investigating ties between Deutsche Bank and the former president, as well as other allegations of illegal activity by the bank.
The documents were left behind by Broeksmit's late father Bill, who had been a senior executive at the German financial institution.
In a 2019 profile in The New York Times, Broeksmit was described as a man with a history of drug abuse who had aspirations of becoming a famous whistleblower such as Edward Snowden or Chelsea Manning.
"I am more emotionally invested in this than anyone in the world," Broeksmit while detailing why he handed over the trove of emails, financial reports and other material to the federal investigators following his father's death. "I would love to be their special informer."
David Enrich, who wrote The New York Times article and made Broeksmit the central figure in his book, Dark Towers: Deutsche Bank, Donald Trump and an Epic Trail of Destruction, described the 45-year-old's death as "terrible news."
"Val was a longtime source of mine and the main character in my book. We had a complicated relationship, but this is just devastating to hear," Enrich tweeted.
The Los Angeles Police Department has been contacted for comment.
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Ewan Palmer is a Newsweek News Reporter based in London, U.K. His focus is reporting on US politics, domestic policy ... Read more
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