Thread: UnitedHealth Group CEO Brian Thompson fatally shot in New York

Someone who lost a loved one because of a policy denial?

Originally Posted by nidhogg

Someone who lost a loved one because of a policy denial?

Well that narrows down the list of suspects.

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

The suspect is described as a white male wearing a black hoodie, black pants, black sneakers with a white trim and a gray backpack, the person said.

it was Rocky

USA the only advanced democracy where health care is run for profit , leeching off the sick and their families to protect the wealthy from paying taxes to provide according to need.

Ironically bastard CEOs will now have their insurance costs raised because of risk

Originally Posted by nidhogg

Someone who lost a loved one because of a policy denial?

Given it was a ‘target attack’ that’s likely. Most insurance CEO aren’t mixing with bike or drug gangs which would be the other source of targeted attacks.

UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was facing DOJ probe for insider trading when he was killed in targeted NYC shooting

UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was one of several senior executives at the company under investigation by the Department of Justice when he was gunned down outside a Manhattan hotel on Wednesday.


Thompson — who was killed in what police called a targeted shooting outside the Hilton hotel in Midtown — exercised stock options and sold shares worth $15.1 million on Feb. 16, less than two weeks before news of the federal antitrust probe went public, according to a Crain’s New York Business report from April.


The stock price dropped sharply after the revelation that the DOJ was investigating whether the company had made acquisitions that consolidated its market position in violation of antitrust laws, a source familiar with the probe told the outlet.

Thompson’s stock options reportedly had several years until expiration, and the sale of shares was his first since assuming the helm of parent company UnitedHealth’s insurance division in 2021.

Thompson, 50, along with UnitedHealth Group chairman Stephen Helmsley, Chief People Officer Erin McSweeney and Chief Accounting Officer Tom Roos, sold a combined $101.5 million in shares, with Helmsley personally netting just shy of $85 million, according to the report.


Charles Elson, founding director of the Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance at the University of Delaware, told Crain’s that share sales by firm principals are typically scrutinized by a company’s general counsel, who can determine whether any additional disclosures to the market may be required before the trades are executed.


Earlier this year, UnitedHealth was hit by one of the largest healthcare data breaches in US history, the company estimating as many as one-third of Americans’ private data — potentially including Social Security numbers — were compromised in the ransomware attack.

The massive firm — with annual revenue of around $372 billion — later said it estimated its financial cost as a result of the hack to be around $705 million, Reuters reported.

Slain UnitedHealth CEO Brian Thompson was facing DOJ probe for insider trading: report

Who Is the Citi Bike Assassin Who Killed UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson?

The killer struck on one of the busiest streets in New York before morning rush hour. At close range, he fired once into the back of his target, the CEO of the largest health insurance company in the world. And then he cleared a jam in the weapon and fired two more times before escaping on a Citi Bike.


Who is the cyclist assassin now on the run? An aggrieved health insurance policy holder or a cold-blooded hit man? Or will some other motive be revealed?

The Hit and The Shooter


Surveillance footage shows the gunman “lying in wait” for five minutes on 54th Street and Avenue of the Americas outside the Hilton, blending into the morning buzz of the busy commercial and theater district.


The shooter is dressed all in black: hat, jacket, ski mask, pants, sneakers (with white soles) and a gray backpack.


Police describe him as 6’1” with a tall, thin build.


Thompson was scheduled to speak at a UnitedHealthCare investor conference in the hotel and his schedule was widely known.


The shooter appears to have staked out his target at the hotel entrance on 54th Street.

At 6:45 a.m., the assassin struck—shooting Thompson in the back, methodically clearing a gun jam and then firing again. The CEO collapsed, fatally wounded in the back and calf.


Police recovered three spent shell casings, three live rounds, and, intriguingly, a dropped cell phone at the scene. The weapon, equipped with a silencer, left witnesses baffled—no one even heard gunfire amid the morning chaos.


Getaway on Two Wheels


In an escape fit for The Day of the Jackal, the fictional assassin in the hit Paramount series starring Eddie Redmayne, the shooter fled the scene on an electric Citi Bike, New York City’s bike share system.


His getaway route first took him on foot through the Ziegfeld alleyway across from the Hilton, then he hopped onto an E-bike, riding half a mile into Central Park where he was last seen.

The Target


Thompson was a married father of two from Minnetonka, Minnesota, with a long career in healthcare.


He was a 20-year veteran of UnitedHealthcare, which he joined after seven years as a management consultant at PWC. Over the years, he had worked at the helm of different UHC business segments including the Medicare division before becoming CEO of a company with a market cap of $610 billion and #8 ranking on Fortune’s Global 500 list.

He had been accused of insider trading in a lawsuit brought by the City of Hollywood Firefighters’ Pension Fund, the Daily Mail reported, which centered on allegations that he had made $15.1 million by unloading shares before a Department of Justice probe into UnitedHealthcare was announced.


Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren had asked the SEC to investigate the claims, Dow Jones reported. UnitedHealthcare had filed a motion to dismiss the case a week ago, public records show.


Why was Thompson targeted?


New York Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny refused to speculate on Wednesday morning. “The motive for this murder is currently unknown but based on the evidence we have so far, it does appear the victim was specifically targeted,” Kenny said. “But at this point, we do not know why.”


Thompson’s widow, Paulette, revealed that he’d received threats—possibly linked to his role running the world’s largest health care insurance company with 52 million customers around the world including 90 percent in the U.S.


“There had been some threats,” she told NBC News. “Basically, I don’t know, a lack of coverage? I don’t know details. I just know that he said there were some people that had been threatening him.”

Could the assassin be a disgruntled customer enraged over denied claims? An employee nursing a grudge? Or was this corporate rivalry or sabotage?


Experts point to the killer’s generic black clothing, use of a silencer, skill with clearing a weapon malfunction, and calculated escape as the signatures of a professional.


Yet, the dropped phone and gun trouble fuel speculation that this could have been a lone amateur driven by desperation or obsession or some unknown motive.


Questions Investigators Must Answer


The Phone: Was it a mistake or a diversionary tactic? Tracing its data could unlock the killer’s identity.


The Threats: Who sent them, and how credible were they? Thompson’s wife’s cryptic comments suggest her husband might have known he was in danger.

The Silencer: Where and how did the shooter acquire it? Such devices are regulated, offering another trail to follow.


The Citi Bike: Where was it hired? Did the shooter use his own information to rent it? The bikes are released only to members of the ride-share scheme or to casual users who insert their credit cards at a dock.


Police have not said if they have found the bike. If they do, they will be able to determine where and when it was unlocked from a dock.


The Big Picture


Was this murder the ultimate act of rage against America’s often infuriating health insurance system? Or the calculated elimination of a high-powered executive?


What’s clear is the shooter’s boldness—a broad-daylight murder on one of the busiest streets of Manhattan. And now, an epic manhunt is underway in America’s biggest city.

Who Is the Citi Bike Assassin Who Killed UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in New York?

No but it could be Joey from Jersey who just lost his wife or kid to leukemia because he couldn’t afford the meds.

Law enforcement tells CBSNews the suspect from the United Healthcare CEO assassination went to a Starbucks moments before the attack, leaving behind forensic evidence. They have also recovered a cellphone from the crime scene. A manhunt is underway.

https://x.com/Osint613/status/1864497294059385018

Originally Posted by david44

2 Very cool customer to fix the jam and get 2nd and third shot in a pro

BBC reporting that he manually cocked the weapon between shots rather than a jam. Reason for this was suppressor with low power ammo to minimise noise.

That sounds like someone that knew what he was doing.

About time some of these money grabbing insurance fookers were laid to rest...

No sympathy from me...

Originally Posted by bsnub

https://x.com/Osint613/status/1864497294059385018

There are a couple of pretty clear CCTV shots doing the rounds, so I can't imagine it'll be long before he gets the 6 o'clock knock.

Torrent of Hate for Health Insurance Industry Follows C.E.O.’s Killing

The fatal shooting on Wednesday of a top UnitedHealthcare executive, Brian Thompson, on a Manhattan sidewalk has unleashed a torrent of morbid glee from patients and others who say they have had negative experiences with health insurance companies at some of the hardest times of their lives.


“Thoughts and deductibles to the family,” read one comment underneath a video of the shooting posted online by CNN. “Unfortunately my condolences are out-of-network.”


On TikTok, one user wrote, “I’m an ER nurse and the things I’ve seen dying patients get denied for by insurance makes me physically sick. I just can’t feel sympathy for him because of all of those patients and their families.”


The dark commentary after the death of Mr. Thompson, a 50-year-old insurance executive from Maple Grove, Minn., who was also a husband and a father of two children, highlighted the anger and frustration over the state of health care in America, where those with private insurance often find themselves in Kafka-esque tangles while seeking reimbursement for medical treatment and are often denied.


Messages that law enforcement officials say were found on bullet casings at the scene of the shooting in front of a Midtown hotel — “delay” and “deny” — are two words familiar to many Americans who have interacted with insurance companies for almost anything other than routine doctor visits.


Mr. Thompson was chief executive of his company’s insurance division, which reported $281 billion in revenue last year, providing coverage to millions of Americans through the health plans it sold to individuals, employers and people under government programs like Medicare. The division employs roughly 140,000 people.


Mr. Thompson received a $10.2 million compensation package last year, a combination of $1 million in base pay and cash and stock grants. He was shot to death as he was walking toward the annual investor day for UnitedHealth Group, UnitedHealthcare’s parent company.


Stephan Meier, the chair of the management division at Columbia Business School, said the attack could send shock waves through the broader health insurance industry.


About seven chief executives of publicly traded companies die each year, he said, but almost always from health complications or accidents. A targeted attack could have much larger implications.


“The insurance industry is not the most loved, to put it mildly,” Mr. Meier said. “If you’re a C-suite executive of another insurance company, I would be thinking, What’s this mean for me? Am I next?”


A longtime employee of UnitedHealthcare said that workers at the company had been aware for years that members were unhappy. Mr. Thompson was one of the few executives who wanted to do something about it, said the employee, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the company does not allow workers to speak publicly without permission.


In speeches to employees, Mr. Thompson spoke about the need to change the state of health care coverage in the country and the culture of the company, topics other executives avoided, the employee said.


Already, there is heightened concern among some public-facing health care companies, said Eric Sean Clay, the president of the International Association for Healthcare Security and Safety. The trade group includes members that offer security to some of the largest health care companies in North America.


“The C.E.O.s are quite often the most visible face of an organization,” he said. “Sometimes people hate on that individual, and wish to do them harm.”


But few health care companies provide security for their executives, he said, in part to avoid bad optics, or because it may seem unnecessary.


In the hours after the shooting early Wednesday morning, social media exploded with anger toward the insurance industry and Mr. Thompson.


“I pay $1,300 a month for health insurance with an $8,000 deductible. ($23,000 yearly) When I finally reached that deductible, they denied my claims. He was making a million dollars a month,” read one comment on TikTok.


Another commenter wrote, “This needs to be the new norm. EAT THE RICH.”


“The ambulance ride to the hospital probably won’t be covered,” wrote a commenter on a TikTok video in which another user featured an audio clip from the Netflix show “Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story.” In it, the queen makes a dramatic show of faux sorrow over a death.

Torrent of Hate for Health Insurance Industry Follows C.E.O.’s Killing – DNyuz

Some others might be inspired to do a copy cat on other health insurance executives. If you're going to die soon and have had a claim denied, there's a lot less to lose.

I pay $1,300 a month for health insurance with an $8,000 deductible. ($23,000 yearly) When I finally reached that deductible, they denied my claims.

Ah yes, the ol' deductible.


The entire system of health insurance should be completely rewritten with deductibles and denials done away with.

Originally Posted by 39TG

Some others might be inspired to do a copy cat on other health insurance executives. If you're going to die soon and have had a claim denied, there's a lot less to lose.

He appeared healthy enough.

Though could of course be terminal, which he will be now if he's packin' when the rozzers come a knockin', and was denied coverage.

There was an Irish gangland execution around 5 years ago right in the middle of a public boxing weigh-in. Most of the lads covered up, an old lad that only had a few months left didn't bother, which of course gets them much closer to the victim without causing any panic.



Here's Sean with the weather.

Originally Posted by david44

Hilarious

Originally Posted by Edmond

The entire system of health insurance should be completely rewritten with deductibles and denials done away with.

I think you have better grasp of vital statistics than acturial accountancy.

If the USA insurers want to rape the poor they can only gouge with teasers, and misleading snmall print as any claimant will aver.

IMHO the only equitable situation is to pool ALL risks as done in civilized societies, where rich can top up for faster treatment or nicer room away from the peasants of course such solidarity is viewed as socialist road to communism and taking your guns away trope by the wealthy in USA who don't want to pay for equal acces to at least basic care.

If all the profits extracted went to funf public provision the total cost of identical healthcare would be the same. The prsent system is basically a tax on the sick from which a few profit IMHO.

Had the Democrats offered to arestructure control of the insuers to operate as they are but transition to non profit charities/collectives or co-ops owned by the people and tax the rich to fund a free for all users like France, UK, Czechia they might have won.

Given the general loathing for the Health insurance industry that has become apparent in recent days, one wonders if anyone will bother ringing....

And someone should ask where Jake Gyllenhaal was at the time of the shooting.

Originally Posted by david44

... Had the Democrats offered to arestructure control of the insuers to operate as they are but transition to non profit charities/collectives or co-ops owned by the people and tax the rich to fund a free for all users like France, UK, Czechia they might have won.

Run to the left of Harris? I don't think that would have worked. I think Harris was the wrong candidate although she had a very good CV and campaigned fairly well. They needed a candidate more distant from the unpopular Biden. Americans aren't yet ready for a better health system. They might be after 4 years of Trump and Kennedy.

I think they'll get the killer before Xmas unless he's left the US.

Originally Posted by 39TG

Americans aren't yet ready for a better health system

I hope you are wrong, the poor and old are.The demand is unlimited . not talking about cosmetic stuff just the type of system common in 40 European nations and Oz etc.I'd start by taxing all gun owners $100 per day per gun might discourage some of the injuries and free up emergency rooms too.

Originally Posted by 39TG

Americans aren't yet ready for a better health system.

That's because they keep getting told free healthcare means them paying for someone else's.

They're too fucking stupid to understand what universal healthcare means.