The family of Bill Clinton’s close friend Patrick Rocca has been hit with a massive $150 million mortgage bill in London.
It was Rocca’s suicide in 2009 that prompted former President Clinton to reflect on the human impact of the Irish economic crisis earlier this year.
Rocca had lent Clinton his helicopter whenever he visited Ireland to play golf and the bond between the two was reflected in an emotional speech by the ex-US leader in March.
“The thing that has troubled me most, believe it or not, about this whole economic crisis in Ireland has been the rise in the suicide rate - not just among the young where it was already too high, but among people in their prime working years who felt somehow their lives have been robbed from them by this,” said Clinton at the Irish America Hall of Fame even in new York.
“A good friend of mine was one of those young, phenomenally prosperous Irish men who took his life when this happened and it made me think about this all over again.”
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Widely regarded as one of the bright young things of the Irish property boom, Rocca left a trail of debt behind him when he committed suicide almost two years ago.
Now his estate has been given just five months to clear a $150million mortgage on the prestigious Lloyds Chambers office block in London.
Rocca purchased the property for $175million at the height of the property boom in 2007 according to the Sunday Independent.
It is currently on the market for $160million, just enough to cover the mortgage and the legal fees, but his estate has been given just five months to clear the loan under the terms of the agreement with the banks.
The latest account for Lloyds Chamber Property Ltd, of which Rocca’s widow Annette is the sole director, outline the extent of the debt crisis.
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