French financier 'totally ruined' by Madoff, brother says

NEW YORK -- The French financier who apparently killed himself after losing more than $1 billion of his clients' investments to Bernie Madoff's alleged Ponzi scheme also saw his own family's money disappear, his older brother told the Associated Press on Friday.

Rene-Thierry Magon de la Villehuchet and his business partner Patrick Littaye were "totally ruined," Bertrand Magon de la Villehuchet said.

Bertrand said his brother had "invested his own fortune" with Madoff — up to several tens of millions of dollars — along with money from friends and family.

Paramedics responding to a Midtown Manhattan office at 7:50 a.m. found a body with no pulse later identified as de la Villehuchet, 65, co-founder of Access International Advisors.

Detective Martin Speechley of the New York Police Department said that there was no suicide note but that there were lacerations on de la Villehuchet's arms, a box cutter and pills near his body, that one of his legs was up on the desk, and that a trash can was placed nearby, possibly to catch blood.

Ellen Borakove, spokeswoman for the city medical examiner, said the autopsy on de la Villehuchet had been completed Wednesday. She said the medical examiner was awaiting toxicology reports before determining the cause of death.

French newspaper La Tribune reported de la Villehuchet committed suicide under pressure from the Madoff scandal.

Access International was one of the feeder funds into Luxalpha SICAV-American Selection, which invested solely with Madoff, the man who authorities allege operated a Ponzi scheme that lost more than $50 billion of investors' money. Access' investments with Madoff were reported at $1.4 billion, according to Infovest 21, a hedge fund newsletter. Access sent clients a letter in which it called the Madoff arrest on Dec. 11 "a shocking development," Bloomberg News reported.

Although Access raised money from European investors, de la Villehuchet operated the fund out of a Madison Avenue office just three blocks from New York's famed Lipstick building, where Madoff's company was based.