A personal assistant of a tech CEO the US accepted that he beheaded his boss after stealing $400,000 to hide his theft from his girlfriend, said his attorney on Friday (May 24).
As per the prosecutors, Haspil was worried that he would be “abandoned” by his girlfriend after she found out about the theft.
After the threat of prosecution started hovering over him, Haspil decided that he would kill his boss, said the prosecutors.
Watch: India: Investigation on for 'murder' of Anwarul Azam | Police suspects Azim was honey-trapped After murdering his boss, Haspil vacuumed the area.
The disk had a unique number, which matched with the Taser that was bought by Haspil before the murder, said prosecutors.
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A personal assistant of a tech CEO the US accepted that he beheaded his boss after stealing $400,000 to hide his theft from his girlfriend, said his attorney on Friday (May 24).
In January 2020, Saleh - who was CEO of Nigeria-based motorbike startup Gokada - had found that $90,000 was missing from a corporate spending account and had confronted Haspil for the same.
Tyrese Haspil, 25, was finding ways to cover his crime from his employer so that his French girlfriend Marine Chaveuz would not be able to find out about the theft and break up with him, stated his defence.
Haspil got entry into Fahim Saleh's $2.4 million Lower East Side apartment. He tasered and then killed him, said defence attorney Sam Roberts, while speaking to the jurors at Manhattan Supreme Court.
Roberts made efforts to convince the 12-person jury that Haspil was going through “extreme emotional disturbance,” which led him to the murder.
As per the prosecutors, Haspil was worried that he would be “abandoned” by his girlfriend after she found out about the theft.
He thought that there were two options: “suicide or homicide.” He finally went with the latter.
Saleh was able to trace back the money to Haspil, but did not press charges against the latter as he saw him as his protege and decided to give him time to pay back the money through a payment plan.
But Haspil continued stealing from the company through a Paypal account. After the threat of prosecution started hovering over him, Haspil decided that he would kill his boss, said the prosecutors.
“Over this period of time, he was planning not only to commit the homicide but to get away with it …To cover it up and how to erase his debt and prevent Fahim Saleh from testifying in criminal proceedings,” Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Linda Ford told the court.
Employee used credit card of boss to buy supplies for cleaning up his murder
According to The New York Post, Haspil also allegedly used credit cards of Saleh to pay for rides and even bought supplies from the same card to clean up the murder.
The prosecutors said that Haspil was wearing a mask when he zapped Saleh with a Taser, stabbed his body and later dismembered it by cutting off the head of the victim.
Watch: India: Investigation on for 'murder' of Anwarul Azam | Police suspects Azim was honey-trapped After murdering his boss, Haspil vacuumed the area. However, the cleanup was not meticulous as he did not suck up every single “anti-felon disk” identification tag which was found at the scene.
The disk had a unique number, which matched with the Taser that was bought by Haspil before the murder, said prosecutors. Saleh’s body was found by his cousin in the living room.
(With inputs from agencies)
