Saturday, April 8, 2006; Posted: 1:59 a.m. EDT (05:59 GMT)
GREENWICH, Connecticut (AP) -- Plenty of people had problems with Andrew Kissel: his estranged wife, his business partner, a few billion-dollar corporations, a group of tenants on New York's Upper East Side, state investigators, the U.S. Justice Department.So when the millionaire developer was found bound and stabbed to death Monday in the basement of his $2.5 million rented home, investigators in one of America's richest communities had a lot of directions in which to look.
"It certainly makes it more complicated," Connecticut prosecutor David I. Cohen said of Kissel's extensive troubles.
So far, however, investigators will not discuss a possible motive or suspects. (Watch police try to unravel a murder mystery -- 1:55)
News reports have quoted unidentified sources as speculating that Kissel -- facing possible prison time for real estate fraud -- hired someone to kill him so his children could collect millions in insurance. Police would not comment on the theory. Kissel's father, William, rejected the notion as preposterous.
Police Chief James Walters said there was no sign of forced entry into the home. Investigators have drained a pool and combed through the couple's house to look for clues.
Police said Kissel's wife, Hayley, who had been seeking a divorce, has been cooperative. Her attorney, Joseph Martini, would not comment directly on the case. "Her primary focus is on the kids," Martini said. "This is another terrible ordeal the kids are going through."
Famous murder cases
Greenwich has been the scene of a number of sensational crimes. Financier Martin Frankel plotted a $200 million insurance fraud while living a life of luxury in Greenwich; and Kennedy cousin Michael Skakel was convicted in 2002 of bludgeoning a neighbor girl to death with a golf club in 1975.
It is the second time that one of William Kissel's sons met a violent end.
Robert Kissel, 40, died three years ago in Hong Kong when his wife fed him a strawberry milkshake laced with poison and bludgeoned him to death with a statue. She was sentenced to life in prison last year in Hong Kong in a case that became known as the "milkshake murder."
"The enormity of the loss that this family has sustained and the reversal of their destiny over the past three years is incomprehensible and heartbreaking," said Philip Russell, Andrew Kissel's lawyer. Asked what might explain the fall, Russell replied: "Greed."
While Robert was a top investment banker for Merrill Lynch, Andrew, 46, was accused of expanding his fortune by ripping off millions of dollars from tenants and real estate bankers. He was found dead just a few days before he scheduled to plead guilty in federal court in a multimillion-dollar real estate fraud case.
Kissel also was being sued by a former business partner, who accused him of misappropriating millions through fraudulent mortgage loans. Attorneys for his business partner declined to comment.
"Andrew has one thing that was driving him," said his 78-year-old father, William, who lives in Florida. "Andrew wanted to be top of the heap. I think Andrew was under a lot of pressure, probably self-imposed, to be top of the heap."
Taste for finer things
William Kissel saw the differences in his sons as teenagers when he gave them credit cards. Robert bought plastic shoes from Sears, his father recalled. Andrew bought a fur coat.
Andrew would later enjoy a yacht, a Vermont mountain getaway, sports cars and household help in Greenwich. His wife, a stock analyst and a competitive skier, shared his taste for the finer things, Kissel's father said.
"Putting the two together was like a snowball running downhill," Kissel's father said. "It got bigger and bigger."
But as Kissel's wealth grew, so did suspicions.
He was skiing in Vermont in 2003 when an attorney for his Upper East Side co-op called and confronted him about millions of dollars missing from the building's accounts.
"Very matter-of-factly he admitted it," the attorney, Aaron Shmulewitz, recalled.
Though Kissel moved out of his co-op and paid more than $4 million to settle the dispute with his neighbors, state prosecutors charged him with larceny. Those charges were still pending against him when he was killed.
Last year, federal prosecutors charged Kissel in a huge real estate fraud, and his bankers sued him, saying they lost millions lending him money.
Robert Kissel was murdered in 2003. He and his wife, Nancy, were going through a bitter divorce -- he accused her of having an affair; she called him a cocaine-snorting, whiskey-swilling, abusive workaholic.
Andrew Kissel's divorce was also heating up before he was killed, court records show. In divorce paperwork filed in February, his wife accused her husband of being a belligerent alcoholic.
Brian: I think this is all linked to this DD he was kidnapped then rescued.
reply
Thanks, will post this.
Brian
Millionaire's son, 23, kidnapped at gunpoint
VANCOUVER — The son of a Vancouver millionaire was grabbed from his car at gunpoint Tuesday morning as he drove his car through the city's affluent Southlands area.
Police released few details of the incident last night. "Someone's life may be at risk," said Vancouver Police Department spokesman Constable Tim Fanning.
He would only confirm that "police are investigating a serious incident that happened before noon in South Vancouver. The major crimes unit is investigating and it is a very active investigation."
CTV News reported that witnesses saw the drivers of two cars force the young man, who was driving his Volkswagen Golf, off the road. The 23-year-old was then dragged from his car and into another vehicle.
The report showed the man's parents being escorted into the Vancouver police station yesterday afternoon, adding that a police helicopter was searching the nearby Point Grey golf course and the banks of the Fraser River.
"We are still interviewing witnesses, and until we get more information, we don't know what we have," Constable Fanning said.
He said police responded to the incident after receiving a number of 911 calls from the public.
A neighbourhood woman, who asked not to be identified, had left her house around 10:40 a.m. and was driving on the same street when she saw some cars blocking the road.
At first, she said, she didn't think much of it. But as she got closer, all but one of the cars sped away and a young, distraught woman came running toward her.
"She said that they had taken her boyfriend and they had a gun," the woman said in an interview. "She was hysterical and asked me, 'Do you have a cellphone? Can I call 911?' "
The woman said the girlfriend told her that several armed men had taken her boyfriend away -- and had taken her cellphone. The neighbour called police and then waited with the girlfriend until they arrived.
"She didn't recognize them," the witness said. "She just said they were younger [than them]."
4.14.2006
DD3392 Did you every do the remote viewing on the one of the people screaming to kill the the rich and their families?
reply
Hi, yes I did and its posted here.
Brian
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