I decided to look for more evidence, and found a previous article David wrote about Val for the NYT. [0]
After reading it, my take is that the comments were hostile, but I don’t suspect any foul play between the two. Just two men who, despite not necessarily respecting the other, worked together to further their own agendas.
An excerpt:
“... the Broeksmit family have warned me that Mr. Broeksmit is not to be trusted, and, well, they might have a point. His drug use has sent him reeling between manias and stupors. He has a maddening habit of leaping to outrageous conclusions and then bending facts to fit far-fetched theories. He fantasizes about seeing his story told by Hollywood, and I sometimes wonder whether he’s manipulating me to achieve that ambition. He can be impatient, erratic and abusive. A few days ago, irate that he was not named in a blurb for my book on Amazon, among other perceived slights, he sent me a string of texts claiming that he’d taken out a brokerage account in my name and traded on secret information I’d supposedly fed him. (This is not true.) A little later, he left me a voice mail message saying it was all a joke.
Why do I put up with this? Because his trove of corporate emails, financial materials, boardroom presentations and legal reports is credible — even if he is not.
“
Probably more relevant that his father was a Deutsch Bank exec who committed suicide, and he seemed to be shopping the leaks around for some time. Or that he was an apparent opioid user.
I decided to look for more evidence, and found a previous article David wrote about Val for the NYT. [0] After reading it, my take is that the comments were hostile, but I don’t suspect any foul play between the two. Just two men who, despite not necessarily respecting the other, worked together to further their own agendas.
An excerpt:
“... the Broeksmit family have warned me that Mr. Broeksmit is not to be trusted, and, well, they might have a point. His drug use has sent him reeling between manias and stupors. He has a maddening habit of leaping to outrageous conclusions and then bending facts to fit far-fetched theories. He fantasizes about seeing his story told by Hollywood, and I sometimes wonder whether he’s manipulating me to achieve that ambition. He can be impatient, erratic and abusive. A few days ago, irate that he was not named in a blurb for my book on Amazon, among other perceived slights, he sent me a string of texts claiming that he’d taken out a brokerage account in my name and traded on secret information I’d supposedly fed him. (This is not true.) A little later, he left me a voice mail message saying it was all a joke.
Why do I put up with this? Because his trove of corporate emails, financial materials, boardroom presentations and legal reports is credible — even if he is not. “
Probably more relevant that his father was a Deutsch Bank exec who committed suicide, and he seemed to be shopping the leaks around for some time. Or that he was an apparent opioid user.
[0] https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/01/business/val-broeksmit-de...