A fund manager who lost more than €1 billion (€715 million) of his clients’ money to Bernard Madoff committed suicide at his Manhattan office.
Rene-Thierry Magon de la Villehuchet was found sitting at his desk at about 8am yesterday local time, with both wrists slashed, New York police spokesman Paul Browne said. A box cutter was found on the floor along with a bottle of sleeping pills on his desk. Police did not find a suicide note.
Mr de la Villehuchet’s suicide marked a grim turn in a scandal that has left investors around the world in financial ruin.
Mr De la Villehuchet, 65, was one of several money managers and investors left reeling in the wake of Madoff’s €35.2 billion pyramid scheme to which, prosecutors say, he had admitted.
Mr De la Villehuchet, a distinguished financier who came from a long line of aristocratic Frenchmen, tapped his connections in the world of European high society to attract clients to his firm, Access International Advisors.
It was not immediately clear how he knew Madoff or who his clients were.
He grew increasingly subdued after the Madoff scandal broke, arousing suspicion among caretakers in his Madison Avenue office tower on Monday night when he demanded that they be out by 7pm.
Less than 13 hours later, a security guard checked on him in his 22nd-storey office suite. But Mr de la Villehuchet was dead — a rubbish bin placed near his body to apparently catch the blood, Mr Browne said.
His death came as swindled investors began looking for ways to recoup their losses.
Funds that lost big to Madoff are also coming up against investor lawsuits and backlash for failing to properly vet Madoff and overlooking some red flags that could have steered them away.
It’s not immediately known what kind of scrutiny de la Villehuchet was facing over his losses.
Mr De la Villehuchet comes from rich French lineage, with the Magon part of his name referring to one of France’s most powerful families. The Magon name is even listed on the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, a monument that was commissioned by Napoleon in 1806.
The Frenchman’s firm enlisted intermediaries with links to upper-crust Europeans to garner investors. Among them was Philippe Junot, a French businessman and friend who is the former husband of Princess Caroline of Monaco, and Prince Michel of Yugoslavia.
Mr De la Villehuchet, the former chairman and CEO of Credit Lyonnais Securities USA, was also known as a keen sailor who regularly participated in regattas and was a member of the New York Yacht Club.
He lived in an affluent suburb in Westchester County with his wife, Claudine.
They had no children.