Zero Hedge blog reports that a European banker who went missing a month ago was found dead near Ostend. Geert Tack, a banker for ING disappeared on November 5. His death makes 36 bankers who have died this year, according to the blog.

Let the conspiracy theories roll.

The hacker group Anonymous actually lists 64 dead bankers who died under bizarre or mysterious circumstances over the last few years. Some of these causes of death are weird Via the blog Judicial Standing:

1. Nov – Shawn Miller, 42, banker found dead in bathtub with throat slashed.
2. Oct – Edmund Reilly, 47, a trader at Midtown’s Vertical Group, threw himself in front of a speeding Long Island Rail Road commuter train.
3. July – Julian Knott, 45, JPMorgan Executive Director,Global Tier 3 Network Operations, SELF-INFLICTED GUNSHOT WOUND
4. June – Richard Gravino, 49, Application Team Lead, JP Morgan, SUDDEN DEATH cause unknown/pending
5. June – James McDonald – President & CEO of Rockefeller & Co – apparently self-inflicted, GUNSHOT WOUND
6. May – Thomas Schenkman, 42, Managing Director of Global Infrastructure, JP Morgan, SUDDEN DEATH, cause unknown/pending
7. May – Naseem Mubeen – Assistant Vice President ZBTL Bank, Islamabad, SUICIDE jumped
8. May – Daniel Leaf – senior manager at the Bank of Scotland/Saracen Fund Managers, FELL OFF A CLIFF
9. May – Nigel Sharvin – Senior Relationship Manager Ulster Bank manage portfolio of distressed businesses, ACCIDENTAL DROWNING
10. April – Lydia (no surname given) 52, France’s Bred-Banque-Populaire, SUICIDE jumped
11. April – Li Jianhua, 49, Non-bank Financial Institutions Supervision Department of the regulator, HEART ATTACK
12. April – Benedict Philippens, Director/Manager Bank Ans-Saint-Nicolas, SHOT
13. April – Tanji Dewberry – Assistant Vice President, Credit Suisse, HOUSE FIRE
14. April – Amir Kess, co-founder and managing director Markstone Capital Group private equity fund, CYCLIST HIT BY CAR
15. April – Juergen Frick, Bank Frick & Co. AG, SHOT
16. April – Jan Peter Schmittmann – former CEO of Dutch Bank ABN Amro, (Possibly suicide, SHOT)
17. April – Andrew Jarzyk – Assistant Vice President, Commercial Banking at PNC Financial Services Group, MISSING/DEAD
18. March – Mohamed Hamwi – System Analyst at Trepp, a financial data and analytics firm, SHOT
19. March – Joseph Giampapa – JP Morgan lawyer, CYCLIST HIT BY MINIVAN
20. March – Kenneth Bellandro, former JP Morgan, SUICIDE jumped
21. Feb – John Ruiz – Morgan Stanley Municipal Debt Analyst, died suddenly, NO CAUSE GIVEN
22. Feb – Jason Alan Salais, 34, Information Technology specialist at JPMorgan, FOUND DEAD outside a Walgreens pharmacy
23. Feb – Autumn Radtke, CEO of First Meta, a cyber-currency exchange firm, SUICIDE
24. Feb – James Stuart Jr, Former National Bank of Commerce CEO, FOUND DEAD
25. Feb – Edmund (Eddie) Reilly, trader at Midtown’s Vertical Group, SUICIDE
26. Feb – Li Junjie, JP Morgan, SUICIDE
27. Feb – Ryan Henry Crane, SUDDEN DEATH cause unknown
28. Feb – Richard Talley, UNKNOWN CAUSE
29. Jan – Gabriel Magee, SUICIDE
30. Jan – William ‘Bill’ Broeksmit, HUNG/POSSIBLE SUICIDE
31. Jan – Mike Dueker, SUDDEN DEATH cause unknown
32. Jan – Carl Slym, SUICIDE
33. Jan – Tim Dickenson, SUDDEN DEATH cause unknown
34. Dec 2013 – Robert Wilson, a retired hedge fund founder, apparent SUICIDE leaped to his death from his 16th floor residence
35. Dec 2013 – Joseph . Ambrosio, age 34, Financial Analyst for J.P. Morgan, died suddenly from Acute Respiratory Syndrome
36. Dec 2013 – Benjamin Idim, CAR ACCIDENT
37. Dec 2013 – Susan Hewitt – Deutsche Bank, DROWNING
38. Nov 2013 – Patrick Sheehan, CAR ACCIDENT
39. Nov 2013 – Michael Anthony Turner, Career Banker, CAUSE UNKOWN
40. Nov 2013 – Venera Minakhmetova Former Financial Analyst at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, CYCLIST HIT
41. Oct 2013 – Michael Burdin, SUICIDE
42. Oct 2013 – Ezdehar Husainat – former JP Morgan banker, killed in FREAK ACCIDENT when her SUV crushed her to death
43. Sept 2013 – Guy Ratovondrahona -Madagascar central bank, Sudden death – cause not confirmed
44. Aug 2013 – Pierre Wauthier, SUICIDE
45. Aug 2013 – Moritz Erhardt, SUICIDE
46. July 2013 Hussain Najadi CEO of merchant bank AIAK Group, SHOT
47. July 2013 Carsten Schloter, SUICIDE
48. July 2013 Sascha Schornstein – RBS in its commodity finance, MISSING
49. April 2013 David William Waygood, SUICIDE
50. Mar 2013 – David Rossi – communications director of troubled Italian bank Monte dei Paschi di Siena (MPS), SUICIDE
51. Fang Fang – JP Morgan, China, DISGRACED
52. Nick Bagnall – Director at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, son accidentally killed himself while trying to re-enact a Tudor hanging
53. Robin Clark – RP Martin -Wolf of Shenfield City banker shot, SURVIVED
54. Kevin Bespolka – Citi Capital Advisors, Dresdner Bank, Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley, Seriously injured and son dead
55. Robert Wheeler, 49, a Deutsche Bank financial advisor, DISGRACED
56. Chris Latham – Bank of America, ON TRIAL, Murder for Hire
57. Igor Artamonov – West Siberian Bank of Sberbank, Daughter found dead (POSSIBLE SUICIDE)
58. Hector Sants, Barclays – resigned due to stress and exhaustion, after being told he risked more serious consequences to his health if he continued to work – a remarkable turnaround as the Church reportedly approached him two months later and was told he had made a full recovery,
59. April 21st Bruce A. Schaal, 63, died suddenly Banker in Twin Lakes for 35 years
60. April 20th Keith Barnish 58, Died Suddenly (Still working as Senior Managing Director at Doral Financial Corporation. Previously Bear Stearns, Bank of America Senior Vice President
61. March 12th Jeffrey Corzine, 31, son of MF Global CEO and Chairman Jon Corzine involved in major banking crime was found dead in an apparent suicide.
62. Keiran Toman, 39, former banker who believed he was being stalked by a reality TV crew starved to death in a hotel room, an inquest heard today.
63. An inquest was opened after his death in July 2010 but his family asked for a second hearing as they were not informed. Police found all of Mr Toman’s possessions in the room, but despite documents mentioning his family, failed to tell them he had died.
64. Nicholas Austin, 49, A former bank manager from Hersden died after drinking antifreeze in an effort to get high. was found in a coma by his wife Lynn at their home in Blackthorne Road on October 5. He died the same day.

International banking is an extremely stressful occupation so it's not surprising there would be so many suicides on this list. And let's put this in perspective: There are millions of bankers around the world and finding 64 who died under mysterious or violent circumstances might be unusual, but not proof of a conspiracy.

You would think that if someone was targeting international banking, they would hit far more important people than those on the above list, depending on their ultimate goal. To bring down the banking system? Not likely. To strike fear in the hearts of bankers? Possible, but why go to all the trouble of making so many of these deaths look like suicides?

In the end, all we have are 64 dead bodies with their only connection being what they do for a living. Unless or until there is evidence to the contrary, we have to chalk up this phenomenon to coincidence rather than conspiracy.