Princetonian, Olympian, Financier, Fugitive

On a Tuesday morning last November, Harold Backer—Princetonian, Olympian, and financier—went for a bike ride and disappeared.

By Editorial

On a Tuesday morning last November, Harold Backer—Princetonian, Olympian, and financier—went for a bike ride and disappeared.

His wife would later tell police that he planned to cycle the Galloping Goose Trail, a popular bike path near their apartment in Victoria, British Columbia. Harold often rode the trail, she said. He’d been clear he wouldn’t be long.

When her husband hadn’t returned by nightfall, his wife called the authorities. Search and rescue teams scoured 40 miles of the trail overnight.

They wouldn’t find him. But Backer left behind a letter, meant for the clients of his financial advisory business but soon leaked to a wider audience.

That letter’s contents, and what it would conveniently leave out, would come to shatter the faith of all those who believed in the myth of Harold Magnus Backer.


Click here to read the full investigation by Global Custodian’s sister title, Chief Investment Officer.

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