Here’s a fresh gallon of gasoline and lit match for our conspiracy-fueled times.
A known whistleblower and FBI informant who was the key source of information in a federal investigation into Germany's financial giant Deutsche Bank, and its links to Donald Trump, was found dead on the campus of a Los Angeles high school on Monday morning.
The Los Angeles County Coroner's office announced the discovery of 45-year-old Valentin Broeksmit’s dead body on the El Sereno campus of Woodrow Wilson High School shortly before 7am on April 25, as reported by KCAL9. School police claim there’s no video evidence showing him enter campus, leaving them with no clue how or when he arrived there.
A source who says they work at the school tells L.A. TACO:
"All the teachers were shocked when they quickly removed the body and admin told us to hold classes as usual." At this point, the faculty were under a mistaken belief that the body belonged to "a homeless man who died of natural causes."
"We all thought it was ridiculous to have students on campus but once the kids were there, it was a done deal," the sources continues. Once they learned the corpse belonged to a whistle blower in a Deutsche Bank corruption case involving Trump, they say, "It was even more odd that very little investigation was done and the entire area was quickly pressure washed."
Thickening the plot, Broeksmit reportedly went missing just over a year ago, his last known appearance reported on April 6 while driving a Mini Cooper on Griffith Park’s Riverside Drive, leading to an LAPD plea for information from the public for help in finding the missing man.
An investigative journalist named Scott Stedman, with the Forensic News website, is said to have spoken with him as recently as this past January, as Broeksmit was a source helping journalists cover Deutsche Bank’s alleged connections to Russia. The two appeared on a podcast together here discussing their work shortly before the dead man’s disappearance.
The Ukrainian-born Broeksmit's adoptive father, William, was a senior Deutsche Bank executive who died by suicide in London in 2014. Valentin Broeksmit is said to have recovered hundreds of documents including private emails, bank records, and financial reports that he turned over to federal authorities and David Enrich, a New York Times journalist, among other reporters. In addition to helping the FBI, he was subpoenaed by the House Intelligence Committee numerous times, as they investigated Deutsche and its ties to Trump.
A New York Times report described the younger Broeksmit shortly afterwards as “an unemployed rock musician with a history of opioid abuse and credit card theft, not to mention a dalliance with North Korea-linked hackers,” and the elder Broeksmit as “the unofficial conscience of Deutsche Bank and a longtime confidant of the company’s chief executive.” The author of that profile went on to feature Broeksmit and his information heavily in his book, “Dark Towers: Deutsche Bank, Donald Trump, and an Epic Trail of Destruction.”
"This is terrible news," Enrich tweeted yesterday of Broeksmit's death. "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."
After hearing of the death, Stedman himself also tweeted, “It is very sad. I don't suspect foul play. Val struggled with drugs on and off. Waiting on further info."
While an autopsy is currently underway, the official cause of death of a whistleblower who stood against an incredibly powerful international banking institution and a would-be American autocrat is destined to meet skepticism and various theories of wild invention.
Just ask Jeffrey Epstein. If you can find him.
L.A. TACO reporter Mariah Castañeda contributed to this story.
