One of Israel’s best-known basketball figures has hanged himself after bad financial investments made through a British company left him $20 million (£12 million) in debt, according to his friends.

Moni Fanan, 63, a former executive of Maccabi Tel Aviv, managed the basketball club for 16 years and won 15 league titles before stepping down last year. His hot-headed antics on the sidelines of the court were notorious in Israel.

Israeli newspapers have reported that Mr Fanan was connected to Nick Levene, the British financier declared bankrupt earlier this month. Mr Levene, 45, went missing earlier this month, reportedly fearing for his safety. British investigators said that he had left scores of claims against him totalling hundreds of millions of pounds.

Thirty clients have contacted Deloitte, the insolvency experts investigating Mr Levene. One high street bank is understood to be owed several million pounds and the smallest claim is for £500,000.

Although Mr Levene is thought to have property and assets in the UK, Israel, Cyprus and three other countries, investors fear that they may get little, if any, of their money back.

Friends of Mr Fanan said that he had boasted of doing business with Mr Levene, investing both his own funds and those of players and basketball executives close to him. Mr Fanan’s debts to former players, coaches and management officials are estimated at about $20 million.

“Dozens of people gave him tremendous amounts of money,” one investor told Haaretz, the Israel newspaper. “He would promise to deliver the monthly yield in cash, and it would arrive in envelopes to some of the people. I have no idea where he would invest the money given to him, but over the years the money would come back like clockwork.”

Mr Fanan was found by his wife, Sharon, on Monday in the shower of their home in central Israel. Paramedics were unable to resuscitate him and pronounced him dead.

A large group of mourners gathered outside Mr Fanan’s home after news of his death spread, and hundreds more held a vigil in Tel Aviv.

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