It is 100 years since F Scott Fitzgerald published The Great Gatsby - his immortal tale of a mysterious millionaire who dazzles New York's social scene before tragedy strikes. Which brings us to the strange story of Matthew Christopher Pietras.
The 40-year-old was found dead on May 30 - just a day after the city's Metropolitan Opera was told the $10 million he had just donated was not his to give.
It is reported Pietras worked as an assistant to Gregory Soros, a son of billionaire investor George Soros, and also Courtney Sale Ross, the widow of the Time Warner chief Steven J. Ross.
The families are working together to discover whether their money was used to fund his cultural largesse.
The Met promptly returned the money while another of his beneficiaries, The Frick Collection, said it did not "believe that any of the contributions were made with misappropriated funds".
It is not clear how much Pietras gave the museum though the New York Times reports it was somewhere between $1 million and $4,999,999. But what is clear is it was significant enough for the Frick to name a position after him - the Matthew Christopher Pietras Head of Music and Performance.