Billionaire financier Thomas H. Lee was discovered dead Thursday in a Manhattan office building.
Law enforcement were called to Lee’s sixth floor offices in Manhattan late Thursday morning where the 78-year-old was pronounced dead at the scene, the New York Post reported. Lee died from what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound, police sources told the New York Post, however an official cause of death has not yet been released.
A pioneer of private equity, Lee is one of the first ever financiers to engage in a leveraged buyout, wherein an individual purchases a company with money borrowed against the business being bought, the New York Post noted. He graduated from Harvard, and went on to found his firm in 1974.
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He purchased the popular drinks company Snapple in 1992 and sold it just two years later for a whopping $1.7 billion, making 32 times on his investment. “I’ve been lucky to make some money. I’m more than happy to give some of it back,” Lee said in 1996 shortly after donating $22 million to Harvard University, one of the largest ever received by the institution. (RELATED: Majority Of Americans Know The Economy Is Tanking, Despite Biden’s Propaganda)
In 2005, Lee’s partners split and he went on to form Lee Equity Partners a year later and served as Chairman until his death on Thursday. He was worth an estimated $2 billion. He leaves behind his wife of 27-years, five children and two grandchildren.
A medical examiner is expected to determine his official cause of death, the BBC noted.