ABSTRACT
News of Ivar Kreuger’s suicide in March 1932 attracted great interest in the United States and Europe. Earlier profiles in publications such as Time and the Saturday Evening Post had made Kreuger a household name. People naturally wondered why one of the richest and most influential men in the world had taken his own life. Rumors of blackmail or syphilis abounded. One “witness” claimed that a letter from a famous actress had been found crumpled in Kreuger’s hand. But four weeks later, when Price Waterhouse reported that $115 million
of purported assets could not be accounted for, curiosity and pity turned to outrage. American investors held more than $250 million of securities issued by Kreuger’s companies. The price of Kreuger & Toll stock dropped from $5 to 5¢ within weeks. Kreuger’s American victims ranged from Rockefellers to widows and orphans.
