Big Madoff Investor Commits Suicide in Office

Photograph of the media outside Access's office on Madison Avenue by Mary Altaffer/AP

UPDATED: The NYPD confirmed that Thierry Magon de La Villehuchet, founder and head of hedge fund Access International Advisors which invested heavily with Bernard Madoff, was found dead in his Madison Avenue office. Police Commissioner Ray Kelly told Bloomberg News, “Our investigative premise is that it was a suicide."

Kelly said de La Villehuchet, 65, was found "with his feet propped up on his desk, a trash pail nearby to collect blood"; he had “multiple stab wounds” to his arms and wrists, plus a box-cutter and pills were found nearby. It is not believed a second person was involved and no suicide note was found. De La Villehuchet had apparently worked late and a cleaning staff found him this morning.

Access International Advisors was one of many hedge funds that sunk money into Madoff's program—which turned out to be a $50 billion Ponzi Scheme. According to Bloomberg News, "Access’s LUXALPHA SICAV-American Selection invested solely with Madoff. Access said last week that it was working with lawyers to assess the situation."

Dealbook reports, "Mr. de la Villehuchet had been trying to recover the money that Access International raised in Europe and invested through Mr. Madoff’s business." And de la Villehuchet's friend told AFP, "Access was his whole life, and Madoff was a manager in whom he had complete trust. I lunched with him two weeks ago and he said, how lucky it was that Madoff was the only manager still doing well at the moment."

Hedge funds that invested with the fraudulent Madoff have come under fire, because the firms were (1) supposed to do due diligence on investments and (2) charged their client heavy fees for managing their money. Fairfield Greenwich Group, a fund that invested $7.5 billion with Madoff (and collected $500 million in clients' fees), is now being sued by investors for "allegedly failing to protect their assets."

Madoff (pictured), has reportedly received death threats, after losing the money of large firms, charities and individuals alike.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Jen Chung in News on December 23, 2008 5:29 PM

Comments [rss]

r1b2

When trust is gone, we have nothing. The market today is operating with no connection to fundamentals. All we had was trust, and Madoff killed that.

Nyctini11

I'm sure will Bloomberg will make sure Bush throws in a last minute pardon to this guy.

JenChungsBaby

He's better than Madoff only in that he didn't knowingly commit a criminal act. But he was a fraud, taking people's money for work he didn't do. I do agree though that he does deserve seppuku points.

And fuck you Snoopy. Find any honorable person who works in the financial industry. Did you happen to catch the last names of the CEOs of Merrill Lynch, Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns?

Jerky

I guess when the fund manager slits his wrists, its a pretty good sign investors aren't going to be getting anything back....

Steven

Smart way to do things. Just give all your money to one person and into one investment.

JacqueMehoff

I agree, why is suicide looked down upon in this society? (or assisted suicide) as lois in yesterday's repeat of family guy said who knew he had such demons?

demons, I say.

Snoopy

An honorable Jew who works in the financial industry? Isn't that an oxymoron?

angry_pickle

This guy wasn't a whole lot better than Madoff himself.

He is 100x better than Madoff. He took his client's money; he lost all their money; his suicide was to pay for his failure. Meanwhile Madoff is sipping coffee, talking to his rabbi, celebrating Hannakah and waiting to go to court so he can get his 5 years sentence in white-collar jail and $1 million fine which he will be able to pay off from his Swiss bank account. So you tell me, who is more honorable.

NannyState

^ Unfortunately, it's a job emptying wastebaskets.

Snoopy

Nanny, look at it this way. Due to this individual's choice, a job opening was created. And I'm sure you know how hard it is to find a high paying job in the financial industry is today.

NannyState

Boy, that was one draining day at the office.

gimme

frenchies, learn to grow some balls, damn, pathetic

mtauser

The suicidal guy was a hedge fund who handled assets on behalf of the Rothschilds and UBS from what I heard.

Snoopy

I still don't get it. I give someone money to invest and then he gives money to someone to invest and then he gives that same money to invest and then the whole thing falls apart and no one is to blame? And at the end they all get Christmas bonuses? HUH?

Amanda Harletsch

the bankers are taking a huge hit out of their own arrogance. It is a man's world after all, and men do what they have to do...fraud and suicide included.

thelexiphane

Brokers from windows. We're actually seeing it happen in real time.

areacode212

DAMMIT! I really need to watch these last two seasons of The Shield before I read any more spoilers.

kinglearsjester

Too bad it wasn't Henry or Ben.

and if he walks into Pastis, I'm sure the staff would still treat Madoff like a king.

Snoopy

Point well taken Lautaro, Now can we proceed with the hangings?

The French guy was a good beginning. What we need to see is that other schmucks take that lead and build on it. Let them not lose the momentum.

Lautaro

From my scant understanding of this debacle, the 'duping' took place on 2 levels. It can't really be said that companies, charities, universities, etc. were duped by Madoff himself. These institutions gave their money to investers- I'm not sure if these are what are called hedge-fund investors- and these individuals were supposed to take that money and spread it around among various investments, thereby reducing their financial risk. But it's these investors who made a big mistake, because it seems that they saw the kind of returns Madoff 'said' were coming in, and thus thought they could provide the biggest return to their clients by sinking all their money with Madoff.