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The body of the Deutsche Bank FBI informant was found in April. Valentin Broeksmit, 46, was last seen on April 6, 2021, at Griffith Park in Los Angeles. According to the LAPD, he was driving a red 2020 Mini Cooper which was later found abandoned. 

Broeksmit was reported missing. And disappeared for a year. He had a troubled history of opioid abuse and credit card fraud when he went off-grid.

His body was found at the Woodrow Wilson High School in the El Sereno neighborhood. And identified by the L.A. County coroner’s office last month.

FBI informant

His family was wealthy. He was born in Ukraine and later adopted by Bill Broeksmit, his mother's second husband, according to the Times. His late father, Bill, was a senior executive at Deutsche Bank when he committed suicide in 2014.  And his death hit his son hard.

Two FBI investigators met with Broeksmit in 2019. They were investigating Deutsche Bank. And he had a cache of confidential bank documents that his dad had left. Some of the documents were password-protected. And there may have been evidence of Deutsche Bank’s history of manipulating markets, bribery, skirting international sanctions, and money laundering.

Broeksmit gave the files of confidential docs to the FBI and journalists and other agencies. On Twitter, he began to refer to himself as a "comically terrible spy." The House Intelligence Committee subpoenaed him when it was examining Deutsche Bank and its relationship with Trump. But despite all the publicity nothing much came of it.

Downward spiral

From unemployed rock musician, a sometime hacker, and FBI informant. But eventually a homeless vagrant who continued his downward spiral.

Captain Kenneth Cabrera with the Los Angeles Police Department said there was no evidence of foul play. And that the man discovered at the school appeared to be homeless.

Forensic News Network journalist Scott Stedman was one of the journalists who received documents from Broeksmit. Which allegedly highlighted the bank's "deep Russia connections." 

Although Broeksmit was reported missing in 2021,  Stedman had talked to him in January. "It is very sad," Stedman tweeted. "I don’t suspect foul play. Val struggled with drugs on and off."