Finn Michael Westby Caspersen Sr. was an American financier and philanthropist. He died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head on October 27, 2011. He left a fortune of more than $1 billion to philanthropic causes, including the University of New York and Harvard.
About Finn M. W. Caspersen in brief
Finn Michael Westby Caspersen Sr. was an American financier and philanthropist. He was chairman and chief executive of Beneficial Corporation, one of the largest consumer finance companies in the United States. He donated tens of millions of dollars to the Peddie School, Brown, Harvard, and Drew University. In the 1980s, he was a major supporter of former New Jersey governor Thomas Kean. He served as a town commissioner in Jupiter Island, Florida, an exclusive upper-class enclave, for four years, resigning a few weeks before his suicide in September 2009. News reports linked him with financial problems and accusations of alleged large-scale tax evasion that were discovered in the course of federal investigations into offshore tax shelters managed by financial firms UBS and LGT Bank. Near the end of his life, Casperson was subjected to an IRS audit with a possible focus on alleged offshore accounts. In 2013 the IRS effectively exonerated Casp Andersen posthumously—with no penalties or fines for offshore accounts or anything else. He described education as his “particular love” and regarded it as “an investment in the future — an investment in human capital.” His philanthropy extended to rowing and equestrian sports, and service to the U.S. Equestrian Team Foundation, Princeton National Rowing Association, and the National ROW Foundation. He died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head on October 27, 2011. He is survived by his wife, two daughters, and a son-in-law.
He leaves behind a wife and a daughter- in-law, both of whom he met at Harvard Law School. He also leaves a son, Michael, who is a prominent New Jersey real-estate developer and investor. He had a brother, Olaus, who was a New Jersey state senator and served as the chairman of the New Jersey Board of Education for 10 years until his death in 2009. His wife, Susan, is a former New York City mayor who served as mayor of New Jersey for three years. She died in 2010. He left a fortune of more than $1 billion to philanthropic causes, including the University of New York and Harvard. His son Michael is a well-known New York real- estate investor and investor, and his daughter is a New York Times best-selling author. He has a daughter, Jennifer, who lives in New Jersey and is married to New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a former state senator for New Jersey, and has two sons, Michael and Olaus. His father and brother were of Russian or Polish descent. His mother, Freda, was a non-practicing Jew, and he thought that his sons needed a religious upbringing. He attended private schools until the ninth grade. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Brown University in 1963 and a law degree from Harvard law School in 1966. In 1972, he joined the legal department at Beneficial Corp, a large American consumer finance firm, and was named the firm’s chief executive officer. In 1978, Beneficial entered the mortgage business.
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