Hedge fund exec falls to death off Pier escalator at Caesars Atlantic City, second in two years
By ERIC SCOTT CAMPBELL Staff Writer, 609-272-7227 | Posted: Monday, September 28, 2009 | 0 comments
ATLANTIC CITY - A northern New Jersey man fell to his death early Sunday morning at The Pier at Caesars, the second man in two years to plunge from an escalator there.
The victim was James Vellanti, of Clinton, Hunterdon County, said a man who answered Vellanti's home telephone Sunday evening. He declined to give further information.
Karen MacDonald, spokeswoman for Taubman Centers Inc., which owns a majority of the Pier, said in an e-mail that the Atlantic City Police Department's investigation is in the early going. Police were called at 12:01 a.m. Sunday, Sgt. Angelo Maimone said.
"We are incredibly saddened by this event. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the family," MacDonald said.
A
LinkedIn.com profile bearing Vellanti's name and a public record of a political contribution in 2006 indicate Vellanti was chief operating officer for the hedge fund JNF Asset Management LLC in New York.
LinkedIn.com also cites his attendance at West Chester University in Pennsylvania in the late 1980s.
Police on duty Sunday night lacked clearance to release details of the incident, though Maimone said no one else was hurt. It was not clear what medical attention Vellanti received.
On Aug. 9, 2008, Frank Gilbert Jr., 25, of Galloway Township, plunged about 40 feet off the moving escalator handrail on which witnesses said he sat.
Gilbert died of head injuries later that day in the AtlantiCare Regional Medical Center in Atlantic City.
