Son of slain hedge fund founder is charged with murder
The son of a New York hedge fund founder has been charged with murdering his father, Thomas S. Gilbert, who was fatally shot at home Sunday afternoon, officials said.
Thomas Gilbert Jr., 30, was arraigned Monday night and charged with second-degree murder as well as weapons offenses and forgery-related offenses, according to law enforcement officials.
The elder Gilbert, 70, was the founder and chief investment officer of Wainscott Capital Partners Fund. He was found dead around 3:30 p.m. Sunday, and a gun was recovered at the scene, the New York Police Department said.
Robert Boyce, the NYPD’s chief of detectives, told reporters Monday that on Sunday afternoon, the younger Gilbert visited his parents’ home on Manhattan’s east side and asked to speak with his father alone around 3 p.m.
His mother left, and when she returned 30 minutes later, she found her husband lying dead with a bullet hole in his head and a gun resting on his chest, Boyce said. According to a criminal complaint released Monday night, the weapon found at the scene was a .40-caliber Glock.
Detectives believed the crime scene was staged, Boyce said: “The gun, laying where it was, didn’t seem [consistent with] a self-inflicted wound.”
He said police searched the younger Gilbert’s apartment Sunday night and found two magazines of .40-caliber ammunition and the box for a .40-caliber Glock.
The criminal complaint said that inside the younger man’s apartment in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood, police also found an envelope containing two empty shell casings associated with the same Glock that was found resting on the elder Gilbert’s body.
In addition, police found “a skimmer device and 21 blank credit cards” in the Chelsea apartment, the criminal complaint said. Skimmers are devices used to steal credit- and debit-card information.
The younger Gilbert was arrested Monday morning, Boyce said.
Investigators did not discuss a motive in the slaying.
The elder Gilbert founded Wainscott Capital Partners in 2011, according to the hedge fund’s website. The site describes the fund as “an opportunistic, actively managed global long/short equity hedge fund that focuses primarily on biotech/healthcare investing.”
Before that, the website said, Gilbert co-founded biotechnology fund Syzygy Therapeutics.
Susman reported from New York. Queally and Raab reported from Los Angeles.
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