Daniel Goldstein was a math whiz who worked for Berman Rose prior to his untimely demise at the outset of "Punked". Daniel was a high-flying wunderkind in financial circles, until three months before his death when his flagship project, the Lower Tide Fund, suddenly tanked, sinking hundreds of millions of dollars with it. His colleague at Berman Rose, Adam Murphy, told Beckett and Castle when they came investigating that they had "fielded scores of less-than-complimentary messages from clients". A lot of people seemingly had a lot of reasons to want him dead.