Tech CEO's grisly murder: Ex-personal assistant charged

NEW YORK • When a young tech entrepreneur with a history of doing business in Nigeria and Bangladesh was found dismembered last week in his multimillion-dollar Manhattan condominium, the case at first seemed to have all the trappings of an international thriller.

Someone in a black suit, a mask and latex gloves had followed the victim, Mr Fahim Saleh, into his apartment while carrying a duffel bag, a security video showed. The person then subdued Mr Saleh with a Taser, stabbed him to death and returned the next day to dismember him with an electric saw, according to the police.

One law enforcement official said it "looked like a professional job".

But, police said, instead of leading detectives towards Mr Saleh's overseas business projects, the evidence quickly pointed to someone close to home: his one-time personal assistant.

On Friday, the former assistant, Tyrese Devon Haspil, 21, was arrested and charged with murdering Mr Saleh, 33. Some investigators theorised that the suspect had tried to make the killing look like a professional assassination to divert attention from himself.

"Mr Haspil was Mr Saleh's executive assistant and handled his finances and personal matters," chief of detectives Rodney Harrison said on Friday afternoon. "It is also believed that he owed the victim a significant amount of money."

According to three officials briefed on the matter, Mr Saleh had discovered that Haspil had stolen roughly US$90,000 (S$125,000) from him.

Although Mr Saleh, who friends said was a generous man, fired Haspil, he did not report the theft, the officials said. He even offered to arrange a way for his former employee to work off his debt in what amounted to a payment plan.

Haspil, a Long Island native who had recently attended Hofstra University, was arrested at 8.45am on Friday at the lobby of a building in SoHo, where he had been staying in an apartment with a female friend, one official said. New York detectives and federal agents from a US Marshals Service regional fugitive task force took him into custody.

Haspil had worked for Mr Saleh since he was 16, according to officials with knowledge of the investigation. One of the officials said Mr Saleh had paid Haspil so well that he had been able to pay off the debts of several family members.

Mr Saleh was discovered dead on Tuesday, when his cousin checked on him at his US$2.25 million condo in a luxury building on East Houston Street on the Lower East Side after not hearing from him for a day.

At the scene, Mr Saleh's head and limbs had been removed, and parts of his body had been placed in large plastic bags designed for construction debris. An electric saw was still plugged in nearby.

He died from multiple stab wounds to his neck and torso, the New York City medical examiner's office determined on Thursday.

Investigators said he was killed on Monday afternoon. The killer used a Taser to immobilise Mr Saleh in a lift and then stabbed him to death, police said.

A security video taken from inside the lift showed that the killer later used a portable vacuum cleaner, perhaps in an effort to remove the particles left behind when the Taser was fired, the officials said. He also used the vacuum cleaner inside the apartment.

After the killing, the suspect used a credit card to hire a car to go to a Home Depot, on West 23rd Street in Manhattan, and to buy cleaning supplies, according to the officials.

He returned to Mr Saleh's apartment the next day, planning to dismember the body and clean up the crime scene, but was interrupted when Mr Saleh's cousin buzzed from the building's lobby, prompting him to flee through the back door and into a stairwell.

Mr Saleh's family said in a statement on Wednesday that the gruesome killing was so shocking it was unfathomable.

"Fahim is more than what you are reading," the family said. "He is so much more. His brilliant and innovative mind took everyone who was a part of his world on a journey and he made sure never to leave anyone behind."

Mr Saleh was born in Saudi Arabia to Bangladeshi parents who settled near Poughkeepsie, New York, a small city on the Hudson River. After graduating from Bentley University in Waltham, Massachusetts, in 2009, he built an app called PrankDial that allowed users to send pre-recorded prank calls.

He went on to found Pathao, a motorcycle ride-sharing start-up in Bangladesh, and left the firm in 2018 to begin a similar venture in Nigeria, an app known as Gokada.

At the time of his death, Mr Saleh was the chief executive of Gokada.

NYTIMES