A 'silly prank' leads to stockbroker's death

Anjool Malde, tipped to become the next biggest Indian-origin entrepreneur in Britain, jumped off the roof of a plush London restaurant Sunday, just days before his 25th birthday, shocking the City.

Distraught friends said Malde's action came after he was told to “leave his desk” by his employer Deutsche Bank July 3 following an investigation into his use of his work computer.

The Daily Mail said Friday the Oxford University graduate, pretending to be one of his clients, had left a silly prank message on a financial website, saying: “I am hot, I am hot.”

The paper said investigators think this was probably a reference to his client, a hedge fund management firm called Brevan Howard, being on a successful investment run.

However, Brevan Howard made a formal complaint to the company that runs the discussion forum, the Daily Mail said.

The resulting investigation suggested that Malde had impersonated the client from his office computer at Deutsche Bank, prompting his bosses to send him home last week pending a full investigation.

“It was a mildly offensive remark which triggered a tragic chain of events,” a colleague told the paper.

“On the face of it, it was a very trivial incident. But in the City, issues which involve potential loss of money or reputation are taken very seriously,” another source said.
The paper said police have found no evidence that Malde had downloaded any inappropriate material on his computer or was involved in any criminal behaviour.

But a colleague told the paper the young stockbroker had previously been told off after he used his office computer to send an email relating to an events management company he ran in his spare time.

Malde, who worked long hours at Deutsche Bank's London headquarters and was often at his desk by 6 a.m., was headed for what friends called a “spectacular career” in the City but feared he may lose his job.

He gained second place in a national competition to find Britain's Graduate of the Year in 2005 after graduating from Oxford University with a dissertation on the under-representation and under-achievement of black males in British universities.

He paid off his university loan by working on his holidays and while studying geography at Oxford University he did radio presenting, journalism, set up his own music company, and held more than 20 positions in various university clubs and societies.

His parents - mother Naina and father Bharat - who live in Yarm, near the town of Middlesbrough, were said to be in a state of shock.

They said in a statement Thursday: “We are absolutely devastated. Equally we are so touched by the warm words from his many, many friends that alluded both to his tremendous talent and positive, lively spirit. He was an inspiration to so many."