The French banker and his $1m "crime passionnel" murder...

It was a murder that shocked France's financial establishment. Edouard Stern, a banker who often rubbed shoulders with politicians including Nicolas Sarkozy, was found shot dead in his luxury Geneva apartment wearing a flesh-coloured latex bodysuit which police said was linked to sado-masochistic sex.

As the trial of Stern's lover begins in Geneva tomorrow, the discreet world of Swiss banking is braced for further revelations.

Stern, 50, came from one of France's best-connected banking families, ran an investment fund out of Geneva and advised on some of Europe's largest mergers. At the time of his death in 2005 he was in litigation with a French chemical company and had several deals involving Russia. He had permits to carry a concealed gun in France and Switzerland, and following his death there was speculation that he had been targeted by a hitman. More...

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