A representative of an investment firm that is accused by US regulators of defrauding investors died in King Edward VII Memorial Hospital yesterday morning after taking an overdose of pills.

Bob Hagar, a Briton and long-time resident of the Island, was reportedly upset that the Bermuda clients he had helped to invest in funds operated by Florida-based Founding Partners Capital Management faced losing large sums of money. Mr. Hagar had been living in an apartment at the Paget home of one of those investors, friend Chris Mason, for the past few weeks.

At around 10 p.m. on Tuesday evening, Mr. Hagar asked to be taken to hospital, Mr. Mason said. "He said he had taken some medication, but I didn't know it was an overdose until we got to hospital."

Despite doctors' efforts, Mr. Hagar died in the early hours of yesterday morning.

Mr. Mason, who estimated that Mr. Hagar was in his early to mid-50s, was told that he had suffered a cardiac arrest brought on by the pills he had taken.

On April 23 this year, financial regulator the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) obtained an emergency asset freeze and the appointment of a liquidator over investment firm Founding Partners, whose principal and founder is William Gunlicks.

The SEC said the Naples, Florida-based firm had misrepresented the nature of around $550 million in investments, which were riskier than investors were being led to believe.

Mr. Gunlicks and his firm were also charged by the SEC with misusing fund assets to pay personnel expenses and misrepresenting that its funds had audited financial statements for 2007 when they did not.

Mr. Mason believed that 50 or 60 Bermuda investors have substantial sums of money invested in Founding Partners' funds and that Mr. Hagar felt bad about his role in helping them to get involved.

"He felt really bad about what happened, but none of the investors that I know ever complained about him," Mr. Mason said.

"He had not been getting paid by Mr. Gunlicks for at least two months and with no income coming in he had to give up his apartment in Flatts, in St. James' Court. I said we could help him for a while.

"He stayed with us and he ate with us. He was a friend.

"I'd say he's been in Bermuda for 20 to 25 years. He used to play football for one of the teams in town."

Mr. Hagar was married and it is understood that his wife was due to fly into Bermuda from the UK.

Mr. Mason said forensic officers from the Bermuda Police Service had been working yesterday in the apartment where Mr. Hagar had stayed.

A police spokesman did not answer a request for comment by press time last night.

Another Bermudian investor in the Founding Partners funds, Craig Harris, said Mr. Hagar was "a nice man", whom he believed had nothing to do with any irregularities related to the investments.

"He did not lose any money himself, as he was not allowed to invest in the fund," Mr. Harris said last night. "He felt bad about what happened to the investors and I heard that he took it very hard."

Mr. Gunlicks set up a company called Stewards & Partners Ltd. in Bermuda in December 1999, according to a cease-and-desist order issued by the SEC in December 2007.

The company could not be found in the online directory of the Bermuda Registrar of Companies in a search last night, nor is it listed in the phone book.

An attempt to contact Mr. Gunlicks at his home in Naples, Florida last night was unsuccessful.