A former high-rolling Wall Street trader popped suspected poison in his mouth and died moments after he was convicted of torching his $3.5 million mansion.
Michael Marin — who wrote a tell-all about the financial world, climbed Mount Everest and amassed a million-dollar art collection — was facing 16 years in prison when he apparently killed himself in Maricopa County Superior Court in Phoenix, Ariz.
Video shows Marin, a 53-year-old grandfather, putting something in his mouth and swigging from a sports-drink bottle seconds after the jury delivered the verdict Thursday.
Reuters
DEATH SENTENCE:Michael Marin, a former Wall Street trader found guilty of arson, puts his hands to his face and apparently slips something into his mouth before going into convulsions and collapsing in a Phoenix, Ariz., courtroom.
His face turns red, and he coughs, goes into convulsions, and falls face first on the carpet.
He was carried out on a stretcher, but was dead minutes later.
Investigators said it would take two to six weeks for toxicology reports to confirm whether Marin killed himself.
The former Mormon missionary had amassed a fortune in the ’80s and ’90s as a Wall Street derivatives trader and held senior posts with Merrill Lynch and Salomon Brothers.
He left finance in 1997 after being fired from Lehman Brothers, then wrote a book that claimed to reveal how Wall Street plundered Asian markets.
After the breakup of his marriage, Marin in 2004 bought a 10,000-square-foot mansion with four-car garage in Phoenix.
But his fortune evaporated as the economy soured in 2008. In a year, his bank account went from $900,000 to $50.
Investigators said he had a monthly mortgage of $17,250 and was facing a $2.3 million balloon payment when a fire gutted his home on July 5, 2009.
Marin escaped the fire by climbing down a rope ladder, wearing a scuba tank and diving mask. Arson investigators found gasoline and dozens of phone books that fueled the flames in the home.
Michael Marin — who wrote a tell-all about the financial world, climbed Mount Everest and amassed a million-dollar art collection — was facing 16 years in prison when he apparently killed himself in Maricopa County Superior Court in Phoenix, Ariz.
Video shows Marin, a 53-year-old grandfather, putting something in his mouth and swigging from a sports-drink bottle seconds after the jury delivered the verdict Thursday.
DEATH SENTENCE:Michael Marin, a former Wall Street trader found guilty of arson, puts his hands to his face and apparently slips something into his mouth before going into convulsions and collapsing in a Phoenix, Ariz., courtroom.
His face turns red, and he coughs, goes into convulsions, and falls face first on the carpet.
He was carried out on a stretcher, but was dead minutes later.
Investigators said it would take two to six weeks for toxicology reports to confirm whether Marin killed himself.
The former Mormon missionary had amassed a fortune in the ’80s and ’90s as a Wall Street derivatives trader and held senior posts with Merrill Lynch and Salomon Brothers.
He left finance in 1997 after being fired from Lehman Brothers, then wrote a book that claimed to reveal how Wall Street plundered Asian markets.
After the breakup of his marriage, Marin in 2004 bought a 10,000-square-foot mansion with four-car garage in Phoenix.
But his fortune evaporated as the economy soured in 2008. In a year, his bank account went from $900,000 to $50.
Investigators said he had a monthly mortgage of $17,250 and was facing a $2.3 million balloon payment when a fire gutted his home on July 5, 2009.
Marin escaped the fire by climbing down a rope ladder, wearing a scuba tank and diving mask. Arson investigators found gasoline and dozens of phone books that fueled the flames in the home.
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