End of The Kreuger Empire and Death
By mid 1931, rumours spread that Kreuger & Toll and other companies in Kreuger's empire were financially unstable. In February 1932, Kreuger turned to Sveriges Riksbank for the second time in his life to support him in raising a large increase in his loans. At this time his total loans in Swedish banks was estimated to about half of the Swedish reserve currency that had started to give negative effects on the value of the Swedish currency in the international financial market. In order to grant him more loans, the government required that a complete statement of accounts of Kreuger's entire company group was presented, as the bank's (Sveriges Riksbank) own calculations showed that Kreuger & Toll finances were far too weak to give him more loans.
At that time Ivar Kreuger was in the United States and was asked to return to Europe for a meeting with the chairman of the Riksbank, Ivar Rooth. He had left Sweden for the last time on November 23, 1931 and returned to Europe on the ship Ile de France, arriving in Paris on March 11, 1932. The meeting with Ivar Rooth was scheduled to take place on March 13 or 14 in Berlin. He met with Krister Littorin (vice president of Kreuger & Toll holding) and his own banker Oscar Rydbeck in Paris on March 11 to prepare for the Berlin meeting. But on March 12, he was found dead in bed in his apartment at Avenue Victor Emanuel III. After questioning Kreuger's servants (his French maid mademoiselle Barrault and the janitor who had had contact with Kreuger in the morning) the French police and a physician came to the conclusion that he had shot himself some time between 10:45 a.m. and 12:10 p.m. A 9-mm semi-automatic gun was found on the bed beside the body.
He left a sealed envelope in the room, addressed to Krister Littorin, which contained three other sealed envelopes - one addressed to his sister Britta; one to Sune Schéle; and one addressed to Littorin. In the letter to Littorin (for some reason written in English although Littorin was his closest Swedish colleague), he wrote:
I have made such a mess of things that I believe this to be the most satisfactory solution for everybody concerned. Please, take care of these two letters also see that two letters which were sent a couple of days ago by Jordahl to me at 5, Avenue Victor Emanuel are returned to Jordahl. The letters were sent by Majestic - Goodbye now and thanks. I K.
Ivar Kreuger was interred in Norra begravningsplatsen in Stockholm.
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