An investment banker at Bank of America died last week allegedly after working for over 100-hour workweeks. His death ignited a firestorm on Wall Street as some bankers slam the toxic work culture.
Leo Lukenas III, who was a part of the bank’s Financial Institutions Group, died of “acute coronary artery thrombus” at age 35 last Thursday, according to a Reuters report.
He leaves behind a wife and two young children.
Lukena, who lived in Brooklyn, had been a Green Beret for more than a decade - from 2013 until he joined the bank as a full-time employee last July - according to his LinkedIn page.
His death came after he had allegedly been working some 100 hours a week for several weeks in a row on a $2 billion merger that was completed last Monday - three days before his tragic death.
The death has shaken some colleagues and ex bank colleagues, said two sources familiar with the matter.
Though there is no direct evidence to suggest his work had anything to do with his death, numerous studies have linked acute stress to thrombosis.
Lukenas’ shocking death reopened a longstanding debate on Wall Street about a bank’s responsibility to employees.
Earlier in 2013, Moritz Erhardt, a 21-year-old intern at Bank of America in London, died after working until 6 a.m. three nights in a row.
A coroner concluded that Erhardt’s death from an epileptic seizure that limited his oxygen supply may have been triggered by fatigue.
Following his death, banks made an effort to restrict employee work hours.
Banks began hiring more staff to lighten junior employees’ workloads and limit hours.
But over the last year, as Wall Street profits dropped and firms prepared for a possible recession, several banks — including Bank of America — cut the workforce once again.