Sheriff: Wasendorf Found With Note About Financial Discrepancies After Apparent Suicide Attempt

An officer from the Black Hawk County Sheriff's department said he found Peregrine Financial Group founder and CEO Russell Wasendorf Sr. with a hose running from an exhaust pipe to the inside of his car Monday morning.

The department released its official report on the incident Tuesday afternoon.

The report said a note was found in the vehicle indicating possible discrepancies with accounts at Peregrine Financial Group, also known as PFGBest. The report said the note was forwarded to the FBI Field Office in Waterloo.

That information apparently by both industry regulatory group the National Futures Association and by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission. An investigation by the NFA on Monday allegedly found that $220 million was missing from the company's bank account.

The sheriff's department report said an officer responded to a call about an attempted suicide at the PFGBest building in rural Cedar Falls at about 8:05 a.m. Monday. He said he saw paramedics attending to Wasendorf, 64, who was reportedly breathing but incoherent. The report said a relative was at the scene.

Wasendorf was transported to Sartori Memorial Hospital before being air-lifted to University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. The Cedar Falls-Waterloo Courier reported he was in critical condition there on Monday afternoon. A complaint filed by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission Tuesday said Wasendorf was in a coma.