Some corporate scandals are so damaging that not everyone involved can survive -- literally.
In the wake of the unexplained death of former News of the World reporter Sean Hoare -- who admitted to his participation in the phone-hacking controversy -- we took a closer look at some top executives who, for one reason or another, felt compelled to take their own lives after a scandal or monumental failure.
Then again, even some of the confirmed suicides have come under suspicion that not all is as it seems.
Former News of the World journalist Sean Hoare is seen in this undated handout picture released on July 18, 2011. One of the sources for early newspaper stories on the News of the World phone-hacking scandal was Hoare. British media said he was found dead at his home on Monday, but police did not believe the death was suspicious.ReutersAn undated Texas Department of Motor Vehicles photo of J. Clifford Baxter, the former vice chairman for Enron Corp, who was found dead of a gunshot wound early January 25, 2002 in a southwest Houston suburb. The toll of the Enron bankruptcy expanded dramatically on Friday with the apparent suicide of a former executive who had opposed the accounting practices that led to the collapse of the energy trading giant. J. Clifford Baxter, 43, who resigned as vice chairman of Enron Corp. last April, killed himself with a gunshot to the head, police in Sugar Land, Texas, an affluent Houston suburb, said.ReutersDavid Kellermann, acting chief financial officer of mortgage giant Freddie Mac, is pictured in this undated photograph, released on April 22, 2009. Kellermann was found dead on Wednesday in his suburban Virginia home, a Fairfax County police spokeswoman said.ReutersPolice remove Mark Madoff's body from his apartment where he was found dead this morning in New York, December 11, 2010. Mark Madoff, the elder son of convicted swindler Bernard Madoff, was found hanged in his New York City apartment in an apparent suicide.ReutersApollo Management LP Managing Partner Leon Black – son of the late Eli M. Black - speaks at the panel discussion "Global Opportunities in Private Equity" at The Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills, California May 2, 2011.ReutersA HYUNDAI EMPLOYEE CARRIES A PICTURE OF THE LATE CHUNG MONG-HUN DURING A MEMORIAL SERVICE IN NORTH KOREAReutersArgentinian Alfredo Yabran (C) walks with bodyguards into a federal court building in this October 1997 file photo to testify before a judge investigating the murder of photojournalist Jose Luis Cabezas in January of that year. On May 16, 1998 Judge Jose Macchi ordered the arrest of Yabran after a key witness named him as the person who allegedly ordered the murder.Reuters
