Agustin (August) Escobar, President and CEO, Siemens Spain, His wife and three children lost their lives in a recent helicopter crash near Manhattan's West Side. The crash came only days after a former U.S. federal prosecutor, Jessica Aber, was discovered dead at home in Virginia, bringing renewed questions online about the close timing of both events.
While the incidents are unrelated, according to officials, their association with Siemens and recent controversies is raising new scrutiny.
Jessica Aber, 43, was found unresponsive at her Alexandria home on March 22. She died in her sleep of complications related to epilepsy, the police said. No foul play is suspected.
Aber was the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, where he also ran significant prosecution cases involving corporate fraud, money laundering and international crime. One of her high-profile cases involved Siemens Energy. In 2023, she supervised the prosecution that resulted in Siemens pleading guilty to stealing trade secrets from a competitor. The company settled for a $104 million fine after owning up to corporate espionage.
Siemens Spain's CEO's death now joins a list of tragic events hitting senior executives from the company. The former Chief Financial Officer of Siemens, Heinz-Joachim Neubuerger, committed suicide in 2015 just after settling with the company for his role in a major bribery scandal.
The crash last week is being treated as an accident. The helicopter, flown by New York Helicopters, had been airborne for only 15 minutes when it crashed into the Hudson River after taking off from the Downtown Manhattan Heliport. Police said all six people on board, including the pilot, died.
And some online, including the entrepreneur Grant Cardone, have challenged the timing of the deaths. "This is not normal," he wrote on X (formerly Twitter), questioning what Escobar could have been working on before his death.
While there is no evidence that the recent deaths are related, their timing and previous connections to Siemens' legal woes have fueled public speculation. Crash investigations are underway.
