IMF Official Gunned Down

Image by Cosmic Smudge via Flickr

An IMF official, Ashoka Mody, was gunned down in front of his home and is in critical condition. If this were a professional hit, Ashoka Mody would be dead. The Police haven't ruled out random robbery, but I don't believe in coincidences.

Mody also worked for the World Bank and wrote op-ed pieces on Hungary, Lithuania and Estonia. Recent leaked reports indicated Sweden is bracing for a full-blown economic and political "breakdown" in Latvia.

"The Svenska Dagbladet newspaper said Sweden's finance minister Anders Borg had told banks secretly that Latvia's political order was unravelling, advising them to prepare for the collapse of Latvia's rescue talks. Latvia has failed to deliver draconian spending cuts agreed to secure the next tranche of its €7.5bn (£6.85bn) bail-out from the EU, the International Monetary Fund, and Sweden, balking at 20pc cuts in pensions and a further 15pc cut in public wages."

Bloomberg reports Ashoka Mody, an assistant director of the International Monetary Fund’s European department, was in critical condition today after he was shot in the garage of his Bethesda, Maryland home last night, police said.

Mody, an economist originally from India, has worked at the IMF for eight years and is mission chief to Germany and Ireland, spokeswoman Jennifer Ann Beckman said in an interview.

“He remains hospitalized and is in critical condition,” Captain Paul Starks, a spokesman for the Montgomery County Police in Rockville, Maryland, said in an interview. “The suspect remains outstanding. We’re looking at a lot of possible different motives at this point,” he said. “It could have been an attempted robbery and it could have been something worse.”

Police are looking for a man who was wearing a mask and was inside Mody’s garage when the IMF official arrived in his car, Fox News reported today. Mody, 53, was shot while still inside the car, Fox News said.

The IMF’s Beckman said she didn’t know whether Mody’s current position involves work on other European countries. The IMF Web site shows that in 2006 and 2007, he wrote op-ed pieces or letters to the editor on countries such as Hungary, Lithuania and Estonia. Before joining the IMF, Beckman said, Mody worked at the World Bank.