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Shock & Mystery Surrounds Suicide in $1.2M Wine Scheme

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A one-time personal assistant to a top executive at Goldman Sachs apparently leaped to his death from a Manhattan hotel on Tuesday — the same day he was reportedly scheduled to appear in federal court on a criminal charge related to a lucrative theft from his former boss, the authorities said.

The former assistant, Nicolas De-Meyer, was accused of stealing more than $1.2 million in high-end wine from the collection of his former boss, David M. Solomon, who is now the chief executive of Goldman Sachs.

De-Meyer was scheduled to appear in federal court at 2:30 p.m. on Tuesday, according to court records.

According to the New York Times, De-Meyer, 41, jumped from the 33rd floor of the Carlyle, a luxury hotel on the Upper East Side where he had been staying. The authorities said he was pronounced dead at the scene.

“Mr. De-Meyer was facing one count of interstate transportation of stolen property,” noted the Times. “Sabrina P. Shroff, a lawyer representing him in the federal case, did not immediately respond to requests for comment Tuesday evening.”

According to the Times, citing an indictment filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, De-Meyer worked as a personal assistant to Mr. Solomon from 2008 to 2016.

“Mr. Solomon, who joined Goldman Sachs as a partner in 1999, was named the firm’s chief executive in July. He is known for having a wide variety of outside interests, including collecting rare wine,” reported the Times. “When he was the personal assistant to Mr. Solomon, Mr. De-Meyer received shipments of wine at his boss’s Manhattan apartment and was then expected to deliver them to Mr. Solomon’s wine cellar in East Hampton, on Long Island. But federal prosecutors say Mr. De-Meyer stole hundreds of bottles and, using the alias Mark Miller, sold the wine to a dealer from North Carolina.”

The Daily Mail, which has followed the case closely, reported that DeMeyer’s assistant responsibilities included receiving wine at the Solomons’ apartment, and moving it to his former boss’ wine cellar in East Hampton, New York, the indictment said.

“David, known for his devotion to wine, and his wife, Mary, maintained an apartment at the prestigious San Remo co-op on Central Park West while the alleged scheme occurred, public records show. DeMeyer allegedly made use of his access to the wine cellar to steal the wine and sell it on to North Carolina wine broker, Ryan Chaland, who ran a company called Wine Liquidators at the time. The scheme began in 2014, when DeMeyer, using the alias Mark Miller, contacted Chaland about selling off wine lots.”

 By: James MacIntyre

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