Irish Tycoon Found Dead, Suicide Suspected

Discussion in 'Wall St. News' started by makloda, Jan 21, 2009.

  1. http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB123249375538400043-lMyQjAxMDI5MzIyMTQyOTEzWj.html

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    Irish property tycoon Patrick Rocca was found dead Monday morning at his home near Dublin, in a suspected suicide.

    Mr. Rocca, 42 years old, was involved in property through his company Accorp Properties Ltd. in Dun Laoghaire, Dublin, according to company filings. He was a member of a prominent Irish family of Italian descent, which has been involved in the tile business. Mr. Rocca was married with children. His sister Michelle is musician Van Morrison's partner.

    Mr. Rocca was found at around 8.45 a.m. at his home in Porterstown, in the Castleknock suburb of Dublin. A gun was found near his body. His family will hold a funeral Wednesday, according to a notice in a local paper. "We are treating it as a personal tragedy," a spokesman for the Irish police said. Mr. Rocca's family couldn't be reached to comment.

    The circumstances surrounding Mr. Rocca's death aren't clear. It comes as Ireland has been grappling with a slowing economy and is struggling with the cost of a bank-bailout plan. The Irish government has moved to nationalize Anglo Irish Bank, the country's third-largest bank, a small-business lender exposed to the collapse of Ireland's construction-driven economy. The finance minister said Tuesday that the government plans to keep big lenders Allied Irish Banks PLC and Bank of Ireland PLC in private ownership.

    The Roccas were a part of Ireland's social scene and that crossed over into at least one of Mr. Rocca's business ventures. In August 2008, a Rocca holding company called Investmedia PR Ltd., a subsidiary of Rocca Holdings, acquired a 12.5% stake in Irish magazine publisher Progressive News & Media Ltd. The company's magazines include RSVP, which covers Irish society. At the time of the deal, Progressive News said Ms. Rocca had been a fashion adviser to the magazine.

    According to local media reports, Mr. Rocca's Italian grandfather was Edgidio "Nano" Rocca, who came to Ireland in the 1920s to rebuild the headquarters of Ireland's justice system after the Irish Civil War. Edgidio Rocca's son, also called Patrick, set up Rocca Tiles in the 1970s. The younger Patrick Rocca moved into property Purchases have included two office blocks near Gatwick airport in London, the media reports said.
     
  2. People that kill themselves because they lose money have weak constitutions.

    It's not as if they're Samurai, or that they're doing anything they consider greater than themselves, unless money is their G_d.

    And if money is their G_d, then I really pity them.
     
  3. With a wife that looks like that, I'm not to sure he killed himself.

    I don't know...maybe I am just being paranoid and weird, but there is something about her in that picture that just seems...off to me -- almost sinister even. :eek:

    Anybody else getting that vibe?:confused:
     
  4. Everybodys rock bottom is different. Some people are liberated when they hit rock bottom. Others feel trapped.
     
  5. is it just me or does his "wife" look like a transexual?
     
  6. It's probably just a bad picture. But I don't like the thin, painted on eye brows and high forehead...and adam's apples...OH SHIT! It is a dude!
     
  7. talknet

    talknet

    Death is the ultimate fate of all human beings.

    Billionaires and Tycoons are ordinary humans. Why so much Hype.?

    Everyday millions of herbivorous animals are killed and eaten by carnivorous animals in jungle/forest. Nobody ever knows this.
     
  8. You have no idea what she would look like with a couple shots of absinthe- she'd probably turn into some kind of green monster.
     
  9. 42 and a "tycoon"? I smell an empire built on house of cards.
     
  10. Which one is Mr. Rocca?:confused:
     
    #10     Jan 21, 2009