LONDON: The husband of one of London’s leading art dealers has killed himself after being caught up in a £34mn City fraud scandal.
Peter Catto, 64, shot himself at the French country house he shared with his wife Gillian, who runs the Catto Gallery near the family home in Hampstead.
Gillian remained in France yesterday following her husband’s funeral earlier this week.
She opened her hugely successful gallery 20 years ago. Singer Tony Bennett has twice chosen it to exhibit his paintings with the private view last year attracting luminaries such as Bill Wyman and Jamie Cullum.
But while her business thrived, her husband’s career became embroiled in scandal. Catto was charged over his alleged role in the theft of £34mn from shareholders in Izodia, a company that traded in computer software and was worth £2bn during the dotcom bubble.
The Serious Fraud Office dropped its prosecution of Catto, a director of Izodia, because he was judged too ill to stand trial. The charges were, however, left to lie on file.
A few weeks ago, Izodia’s boss Gerald Smith was sentenced to eight years in jail for orchestrating the swindle. It is not known whether it was the stress of the case that drove Catto to take his own life or other personal problems.
Clarke Osbourne, a friend and former business colleague of Catto said: “I just can’t believe it. I spoke to him only two or three weeks ago and he seemed fine. He said to me that because Gerald Smith had gone to jail from his point of view the whole case was out of the way.”
Osbourne added: “He was saddened with the Izodia affair and it must have taken a terrible toll on him as an individual. He was a pretty robust character but the case was very high profile and must have caused him a huge amount of stress.” – London Evening Standard |
