Billionaire financier and investor Thomas H. Lee was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound at his Manhattan office Thursday morning, police sources said.
According to NY Post, cops responded to a 911 call at 767 Fifth Ave. — where Thomas H. Lee Capital LLC is located on the sixth floor — around 11:10 a.m.
Police found the billionaire’s body at the office. EMTs pronounced him dead at the scene. Lee’s official cause of death will be determined by the Chief Medical Examiner.
The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner will determine the official cause of death.
‘The family is extremely saddened by Tom’s death. While the world knew him as one of the pioneers in the private equity business and a successful businessman, we knew him as a devoted husband, father, grandfather, sibling, friend and philanthropist who always put others’ needs before his own,’ Lee family friend and spokesperson Michael Sitrick said in a statement.
‘Our hearts are broken. We ask that our privacy be respected and that we be allowed to grieve.
A front desk worker at Lee’s office building was told there was an ’emergency’ on the sixth floor, but was unaware of Lee’s death.
‘They don’t want anyone going to that space right now, not even the building staff,’ the man said.
Lee, a Harvard graduate, had a net worth of roughly $2 billion at the time of his death, according to Forbes.
The financier struck gold in his career by acquiring midsized companies, restoring their worth, and then selling them for wild profits – and his technique and success at the time was described as the ‘envy of Wall Street.’
