A Chinese Banker Jumped To His Death - Some Think It Was Because Of The Gold Sell-Off

AP/GREG BAKERLast week, 60-year-old banker Wang Shiqiang, who worked for state-owned China Jianyin Investment, jumped to his death from a building in Beijing's financial district, the South China Morning Post reports (via Shanghaiist).

Officials at the state-owned firm said the banker died because of "health reasons."

Here's the statement from the firm's website:

"For health reasons, former supervisor of the China Construction Bank Investment Co., Ltd. Wang Shiqiang, died in Beijing on April 17, 2013."

There had speculation that he jumped because of losses trading gold and silver futures. Gold had its biggest sell-off last week in thirty years.

From SCMP:

A Beijing-based spokesman at Jianyin Investment confirmed with the South China Morning Post that the senior banker's unexpected death was suicide but subsequently denied speculation that the incident was related to substantial losses from trading in gold and silver futures.

Wang was chairman of the board of supervisors at Jianyin Investment. He was also a non-executive director for the Bank of China.