Daniel Pirron, a partner in Delloite’s key General Counsel’s office in New York, was found dead in a car park near his home in Trumbull, Connecticut.
On August 6, Deloitte was accused by the New York Department of Financial Services of aiding Standard Chartered in its “deception” over billions of dollars’ worth of trades involving Iran.
Mr Pirron apparently took his own life seven days later.
Deloitte denies the DFS allegations that have led to Standard Chartered agreeing to pay a fine of $340m.
Speaking publicly for the first time about the incident, Mr Pirron’s brother, Mike, said the family believed the two events were connected and that Daniel Pirron had warned his daughters the day before his death that there was “big trouble” ahead.
“My brother didn’t discuss the case but he told me they were in big trouble with this case in London,” he said.
“He was clearly apprehensive about a case that was about to come out. It is just extraordinary, when he was fine, that somebody would take his life.”
Asked directly if he believed the two events were connected, Mr Pirron said: “The circumstances are just too much of a coincidence.
“He was in the legal department and I think he was in London. It had to be work related. He told me the company was under pressure over this.”
The local Fairfield Police have launched an investigation into Mr Pirron’s death and his office in New York has been sealed off.
Mr Pirron, a leading businessman who owns a construction company in Chicago, said his brother had been acting strangely the day before he shot himself. “He was with his daughter on Sunday and she said he was acting very apprehensive. He kept going to the newsstands, looking for an important story to come out to do with Deloitte,” he said.
The family has hired a lawyer to try to retrieve his laptop, which Deloitte is not releasing.
Mr Pirron said that they had been left devastated and confused by his death and are determined to uncover the reasons behind it.
“He had two beautiful girls. He had everything to live for. For him to just step out of the picture just doesn’t make any sense. A lot of things aren’t sitting well with us.”
Daniel Pirron was a detective for the Illinois Bureau of Investigation and the Securities and Exchange Commission in Chicago, before moving to work for Deloitte in 1990.