Son of hedge fund boss ‘killed him over money’

THE son of a $200 million hedge fund founder has been charged with the murder of his father, US police have said.

Thomas Gilbert Jr., after his arrest in September. Picture: AP

Thomas Gilbert, 70, was found in his Manhattan apartment at the weekend with a single gunshot wound to the head.

He was allegedly killed by his 30-year-old son, Thomas Gilbert jnr, after the pair argued over the son’s allowance.

Mr Gilbert jnr was arrested on charges of murder and possession of a weapon. Police said Mr Gilbert jnr went to his parents’ home on Sunday and asked his mother to go out to get him some food. About 15 minutes later, she got a “bad feeling” and came back, said Robert Boyce of the NYPD.

“She found Senior on the floor with a bullet hole in the head,” said Mr Boyce. “She also found a gun resting on his chest with his left hand covering it.”

However, Mr Boyce said the murder scene had been manipulated to make it appear as though Mr Gilbert snr had killed himself. Officers went to Mr Gilbert jnr’s apartment, where they found loose bullets and a shell that matched the gun found at the scene, police said.

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Mr Gilbert jnr was in debt and had argued with his father over his allowance, police said. His former girlfriend Anna Rothschild told the New York Post that he often complained about his father being “hypercritical”.

“He talked a lot about his dad and how mean he was to him and how nothing was good enough,” she said.

ABC News has reported that the father was considering no longer paying his son’s rent and reducing his weekly allowance. According to the New York Post, Mr Gilbert snr. had been subsidising his son’s lifestyle by paying for his $2,400-a-month Chelsea apartment and giving him a weekly allowance of $600, the paper reported.

The elder Gilbert, a graduate of Princeton University and Harvard Business School, founded Wainscott Capital Partners Fund in 2011. The fund has $200 million (£131m) in assets and focuses on the biotech and health care industries. He previously co-founded Syzygy Therapeutics, a biotech asset acquisition fund.

His son also attended Princeton, graduating in 2009 with a degree in economics. Authorities said he had no recent work history.

It was reported that Mr Gilbert jnr has a pending criminal case in the town of Southampton, on eastern Long Island.

He was arrested on 18 September on a charge of criminal contempt. Southampton town police say he violated an order of protection issued in Brooklyn in June.

Mr Gilbert jnr has pleaded not guilty in the contempt case and is scheduled to appear in court on 2 February.

He has been charged with second-degree murder and criminal possession of a weapon in connection to the death of his 70-year-old father.

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