Death of Zac Brettler
2019 death of British teenager in London
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Zachary Josh Brettler (20 September 2000[1] – 29 November 2019) was a British teenager who fell to his death in London on the early morning of 29 November 2019. He was recorded on CCTV leaping from the balcony of a luxury Millbank riverside apartment owned by a Saudi princess and occupied by Verinder "Indian Dave" Sharma, a London gangster.[2][3]
Background
After Brettler's death, it was revealed that the 19-year-old had been living a double life. While born and raised in Maida Vale by prosperous British Jewish parents, Rachel and Matthew, the grandson of a notable rabbi, Hugo Gryn, and educated at Mill Hill School,[4][5] Brettler was living as "Zac Ismailov," son of a fictitious Russian oligarch who was poised to inherit millions.[2]
A pathologist stated that Brettler had a broken jaw, which could not be explained by the fall.[6][7][8][9] While only Sharma was in the apartment when Brettler leapt from the balcony, businessman Akbar Shamji had been with them earlier in the night and returned to the apartment shortly after Brettler's death.[2]
Investigation and inquest
The police interviewed both Sharma and Shamji multiple times about Brettler's death. Sharma replied "no comment" to almost all of their questions.[6] Shamji was interviewed twice and his testimony contained many inconsistencies. By 2022, the investigation had stalled due in part to police errors, including not swabbing the apartment for blood and failing to press Shamji on why his car GPS did not match his testimony.[10] At the inquest, Brettler's death was ruled as "open."[3]
Sharma died in December 2020 of an overdose in his Riverwalk apartment.[3][10]
Public interest and aftermath
The death is explored by author Patrick Radden Keefe in a 2024 article for The New Yorker, "A Teen's Fatal Plunge into the London Underworld" which generated worldwide attention.[10] This interest led to multiple other articles, especially in London, written about the circumstances and people involved in Brettler's death.[11] Shamji and his wife hired a PR firm to handle the fallout and shield her fashion house, SAFiYAA.[2]
Keefe expanded his article into a book entitled London Falling: A Mysterious Death in a Gilded City and a Family's Search for Truth that was published in 2026.[12][13][2]