Deloitte Partner and Chicago Native Suicide; Possible Link To Standard Chartered Mess
Suicide of Deloitte partner Daniel Pirron linked to Standard Chartered’s Iran scandal
The family of a senior partner at Deloitte has called for answers after he apparently committed suicide days after the auditing firm was linked to the Standard Chartered Iran dollar trades scandal.
Daniel Pirron, a partner in Deloitte’s key General Counsel’s office in New York, was found dead in a car park near his home in Trumbull, Connecticut.On August 6, Deloitte was accused by the New York Department of Financial Services of aiding Standard Chartered in its “deception” over billions of dollars’ worth of trades involving Iran.Mr Pirron apparently took his own life seven days later.Deloitte denies the DFS allegations that have led to Standard Chartered agreeing to pay a fine of $340m.Speaking publicly for the first time about the incident, Mr Pirron’s brother, Mike, said the family believed the two events were connected and that Daniel Pirron had warned his daughters the day before his death that there was “big trouble” ahead.Daniel Pirron, a partner in Deloitte’s key General Counsel’s office in New York, was found dead in a car park near his home in Trumbull, Connecticut.On August 6, Deloitte was accused by the New York Department of Financial Services of aiding Standard Chartered in its “deception” over billions of dollars’ worth of trades involving Iran.Mr Pirron apparently took his own life seven days later.Deloitte denies the DFS allegations that have led to Standard Chartered agreeing to pay a fine of $340m.Speaking publicly for the first time about the incident, Mr Pirron’s brother, Mike, said the family believed the two events were connected and that Daniel Pirron had warned his daughters the day before his death that there was “big trouble” ahead.
More at The Telegraph. There have been no reports in US media yet.
Update: Sunday evening unbylined report from Reuters:
Aug 19 (Reuters) – Deloitte LLP said Sunday that the suicide of a New York accountant was unrelated to work for British bank Standard Chartered Plc.
Daniel Pirron, 57, was found dead of a gunshot to the head on Aug. 13 after a passerby noticed the body in a Fairfield, Connecticut parking lot, a Fairfield Police spokeswoman said Sunday. A .38-caliber handgun, found near his body, was registered to Pirron.
Ok, then.
Recalling the suicide of ENRON’s J. Clifford Baxter? Now it happened again in what might turn out as just another business fraud.
Very often these days we talk about behavioral business ethics, which are seen as an important supplement to a more puristic normative ethical business approach. The reason for this more descriptive approach are research findings which show, that all of us can miss an ethical decision, mainly and out of several reasons, because we are not even aware of the mere presence of an ethical dimension in our actions.
But I guess, that committing suicide might rather point to a more conscious involvement in unethical or even illegal actions.
If it finally was suicide, then…
Hans J. Gscheidmeyer
@hans: Ironically, Deloitte authored a report on the topic of occasional and habitual unethical business behavior, entitled “Managing the bad apples and protecting the barrel” – http://www.deloitte.com/assets/Dcom-SouthAfrica/Local%20Assets/Documents/Managing%20the%20bad%20apples.pdf
@anonymus: Thanks for interesting insights coming from that link!
I would have an interesting insight in that area too for sharing it with Deloitte et al..
It comes from the Dutch Arie de Geus, a former Senior Manager at Shell, and can be found in his recommendable book »The Living Company«.
AdG describes investigations initiated by Shell, why some companies have a long life, others not. The findings end in a simple classification: There are »River Companies« with the potential for long life and there are »Puddle Companies« lacking that potential completely. Since the River Companies are open(internally and externally), they stay in continuous exchange with their surroundings and have learned, that it is of utmost importance to find out, whether new members entering the circle do share the same basket of values or not. Puddle companies on the other side are quite closed companies -where even former members may not any longer belong to the inner circle- have lost that ability completely. End of story. Where would you place Deloitte then?
Hans