TORONTO – A 21-year-old intern working at a Bank of America branch in London was found dead last week after reportedly working 72 hours in a row.
Moritz Erhardt was found dead in a student housing complex in East London Thursday after collapsing in the shower, according to Bloomberg News.
Erhardt died one week shy of completing the summer internship.
“He was popular amongst his peers and was a highly diligent intern at our company with a promising future,” Bank of America said in a statement. “Our first thoughts are with his family and we send our condolences to them at this difficult time.”
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According to Gawker, Erhardt’s friends took to wallstreetoasis.com, a finance blog, to mourn the passing of a fellow intern. One anonymous commenter said Erhardt “went home at 6am three days in a row.”
An intern staying in the same housing complex as Erhardt told the Independent those working in investment banking work late into the night.
“We all work long hours, but the guys working regularly until 3am or 4am are those in investment banking. People working in markets will have to be in at 6am but not stay as late, so what time you can leave the office depends on your division,” the source said.
“You’re only doing it for up to 10 weeks so there’s a general acceptance of it. I see many people wandering around, blurry-eyed and drinking caffeine to get through but people don’t complain because the potential rewards are so great. We’re competing for some very well-paid jobs.”
John McIvor, a spokesperson for Bank of America Merrill Lynch, could not comment on the hours interns worked when asked by the British paper.
“All the rumours and comments are just that. We will have to wait and see what the post-mortem examination says.”
Police are not treating the death as suspicious.
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