A worker at Lehman Brothers, one of the biggest stockbrokers on both sides of the Atlantic, has disappeared and may have taken £83.4 million sterling of his clients' money with him.
As the investigation into the loss of €864 million at AIB's US subsidiary Allfirst continues it was revealed Mr Frank Gruttaduria, (44) was reported missing from his home in Cleveland, Ohio, in January after leaving a note telling his girlfriend: "I am not the man you think."
Investigators believe he siphoned millions of pounds of his clients' money and forged statements to mislead them, the Wall Street Journalreported.
He wrote to the FBI just before he disappeared and said: "During the course of the past 15 years, I have caused misappropriation through various methods.
"It is a complicated and substantial interwoven fabric of digression."
And he later wrote to his mother and said: "I don't know how to live as a fugitive.
"I'm really terrified, but please remember me as a young boy."
The stockbroker had a large home, a series of cars, a half-share in a private jet, a Manhattan apartment and a ski lodge in upstate New York.
The FBI are believed to be closing in on him and think he still lives in the US, while angry clients have launched law suits against Lehman Brothers to try to recoup their losses.
PA