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July 23, 2008 - 4:01PM
Valley mortgage executive’s death ruled suicide
Ed Taylor, Tribune
The death of Scott M. Coles, the chairman of Mortgages Ltd., has been ruled a suicide by the Maricopa County Medical Examiner.
CEO's death stuns friends, associates
Coles, who was found in the bedroom of his east Phoenix home on June 2, overdosed on a combination of alcohol, the opiate Oxycodone and Ambien, a prescription sleep aid, according to the report. His blood alcohol level was 0.24. He had not suffered any kind of bodily trauma, the report said.
Coles, 48, was the head of a firm that lent money for some of the highest-profile development projects in the Valley, including the Centerpoint high-rise condominium project in downtown Tempe. But the company was damaged by the softening economy and became the target of lawsuits by developers who complained that Mortgages Ltd. had not fully funded promised loans.
The company's investors had become increasingly reluctant to provide more money for real estate projects because of the weak economy.
Mortgages Ltd. entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings on June 23, and several of the projects are on hold pending the outcome of the firm's reorganization or obtaining financing from other sources.
According to police records and published reports, Coles was found lying in bed, wearing a black tuxedo and with a picture of his second wife, Ashley, next to him. The day before, Coles and his wife had entered into a 48-hour separation, Ashley told police.
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