Missing banker found dead

A Dutch financier who went missing after leaving his job at troubled banking group ABN Amro has been found dead in woodland.

Fears grew for the safety of high-flying banker Huibert Boumeester when he missed a business appointment. He had not been seen for a week.

Police said two of his shotguns had also disappeared from his homes in London and Scotland.

The body of the 49-year-old former chief financial officer at ABN Amro was found in woodland in Winkfield, Windsor, Berkshire, yesterday morning.

A Thames Valley Police spokesman said they could not confirm the identity of the dead man, but added: "He is believed to have died from gunshot wounds.

"At the moment it is being treated as an unexplained death.

"A definite cause of death has not been established."

Mr Boumeester joined ABN Amro, the 2007 takeover of which plunged the Royal Bank of Scotland into record losses, in 1987.

He worked his way up to the post of chief financial officer before leaving early last year. It is not known whether he left the company voluntarily or was forced out.

Staff at Artemis Assets Management, where the missing businessman was appointed to the board following a merger with ABN Amro, said he resigned in March this year citing "personal reasons".

Mr Boumeester, who set up the Boumeester Foundation in a bid to conserve cultures in countries such as Vietnam, China and Bhutan, was described by police as "feeling down of late".

His car, a blue 56-registration Range Rover, also went missing last week.