Banker Tries to Kill Himself After Dispute Involving Poodles

Solar Investments President Adam Silberman, 47, attempted suicide by jumping off a window of his seventh-story apartment on Fifth Avenue this Sunday. The banker landed on a second-floor balcony and was rushed to a hospital, where he is being treated for "multiple trauma" injuries, including broken bones, among other things. As of Monday, he was in critical but stable condition at Weill Cornell Medical Center.

Silberman's reported motive for attempting suicide involved an ongoing dispute with his co-op board at his apartment over his yappy dogs, which were bothering other residents. Silberman's father-in-law, Paul Ender, told journalists that Silberman was devastated over the prospect of losing his beloved dogs or having to leave his luxurious apartment, where he had been living with this wife, Monique Ender Silberman, for the last 25 years. Ender showed the New York Daily News a July 12 memo from the co-op board that lambasted Silberman for disruptive "conduct and issues," and gave the banker 30 days to move out.

Now, this tragic story notwithstanding, one cannot help but wonder if there were any ulterior motives behind Silberman's dramatic dive. For one, police reportedly found "crack paraphernalia" while searching Silberman's apartment. In addition, public records show that the Silbermans were hit with more than $650,000 in state and federal tax liens over the past five years. Silberman's father-in-law insisted, however, that the couple was not in any financial troubles, despite the accumulated liens. He also insisted that Silberman was not using drugs, and called him a "clean individual and a loving husband." Michael Moss, a family friend of Silberman's, said that the banker's actions all boiled down to his high pressure job and the controversy over his pets. He told the New York Post that "the stress was too much for him [Silberman]."

So why did Silberman jump off his building after all? Should we believe his father-in-law's suggestion that it was it was simply over his rambunctious three dogs? My guess is that something more is involved, although the fight with the co-op board and his eviction probably also added to the stress that Silberman had undoubtedly been enduring. Indeed, Moss's hint that Silberman's stress also concerned his high pressure job indicates that there may be a lot more to the story than a few noisy dogs. While any underlying details are being revealed, however, we are left to wonder what fatal combination of money, drugs, and dogs, were ultimately responsible for Silberman's tragic suicide attempt.