Banker maybe died in S&M crime

2005-03-09 14:18

Geneva - French banker Edouard Stern, found murdered last week at his Geneva apartment, may have been the victim of a sado-masochistic crime, the Swiss newspaper Le Matin reported on Wednesday.

It said the body of the 50 year-old victim with four bullet wounds had been found clad in a flesh-coloured latex rubber costume covering it entirely from head to foot, with only three apertures for the eyes and mouth.

The newspaper said this kind of dress "together with a rope found on a chair in the room where the victim was lying, strengthens the hypothesis of a sado-masochistic crime."

The victim had "been part of this milieu," the newspaper claimed.

Stern, son-in-law and one-time intended successor of Michel David-Weill, chairman of French merchant bank Lazard, was found on Tuesday of last week apparently shot to death by four bullets.

Could not move freely

"Wrapped in this clothing, the victim was practically no longer able to move freely," the newspaper said. The equipment he was wearing usually came from London and could be bought on the internet and in specialised shops.

The newspaper said police were still examining a theory that the killing was in fact a score-settling involving Stern's business affairs.

Police have so far revealed little information, not even the type of weapon used.

Le Matin said the victim had taken two bullets to the head. A surveillance camera guarding the entrance to the apartment in the centre of Geneva had "provided identification of a good number of visitors," it said.

Stern's maid told a Swiss newspaper, the Tribune de Geneve, that his business associates had become worried when he failed to turn up for work.

The financier married the daughter of David-Weill, who made him his heir apparent before Stern left the merchant bank in 1997.

Since then he has managed his own personal fortune.

In 2003 Stern was forced off the board of the French speciality chemicals company Rhodia following a failed move to oust then chairman Jean-Pierre Tirouflet.

- AFP