Yes, we do have our fun sometimes, poking jests (some kind and some unkind) at the personalities that make up the modern world of finance. But it gives us no pleasure to relate this particular story of apparent suicide.
Rene-Thierry Magon de la Villehuchet, a founder of the hedge fund Access International Advisors, was found dead early Tuesday in his office in Manhattan, the French business daily La Tribune reported on its Web site, after losing as much as $1.4 billion that had been invested with Bernard L. Madoff, the money manager accused of running a $50 billion Ponzi scheme. Mr. de la Villehuchet, 65, committed suicide, La Tribune said, citing a someone close to Mr. de la Villehuchet.
True, it could not have been anything other than a failure of due diligence and an abysmal lack of diversification that permitted Made-off to do such damage to some investors, but you never want to see this sort of thing.
And here is where the really sinister part of the entire Made-off affair begins to show. The devastating psychological impact of being a victim of such a fraud, probably knowing that you should have known better all along, can be quite a bit to bear. To the French, such indiscretion in the service of greed, no doubt, is far less tolerable than it might be here.
Head of Fund Invested in Madoff Said to Commit Suicide [Dealbook]
And Madoff relaxes in his East 64th street luxury apartment. I wish for his eternal misery.
You knew this story was coming. Still, it sucks.
Wait until his children are kidnapped, then totured and killed in front of Bernie… Then Bernie can sit in jail for the next 15-20 knowing what it feels like to lose everything.
doubt this is the first or last suicide related to the recent finance shenanigans
That is sad. I spent much of my childhood in France. I remember wealthy family friends making themselves look like they had less money when they would go out in public. There is still a certain guilt that comes with money there.
Behind every fortune, is a crime – Balzac
This is sad indeed. On the other hand I’m sure he was living a very good life prior to the exposure of Maddoff’s scheme. He could take the high of life but not the low.
For those who were genuinely duped, I feel badly. I’m sure the guilt is palpable.
For those who ‘sort of knew but looked the other way’, may the embers of hell torment you until the end of time.
(If only I believed in hell or the end of time).
“There is still a certain guilt that comes with money there.”
?????? And that is good because……
Maybe that is one of the reasons that this scrappy nation – which did not even exist 300 years back – has totally pwned the once great nation of France?
Anyways, if Noel had indeed raised funds from South America then he better be busting his ass trying to recoup and pay those folks back coz those folks dont take too nicely to their money being taken away.
1100 human beings have died of cholera in Zimbabwe in recent weeks. During 2008, some 300,000 babies were sickened in China as the result of melamine poisoning; 6 died, at least according to official statistics.
Not one of those deaths receives extensive coverage, yet we weep and wail over a suicide by a greedy hedge fund manager. What kind of man deems his life over because of an investment loss? In killing himself, he is making a philosophical statement that the value of life is determined by money. Pathetic.
EP While, “To the French, such indiscretion in the service of greed, no doubt, is far less tolerable than it might be here.” , indiscretion in the service of the NAZI’s, a la the Vichey, is less tolerable here!
good
A good start.
I know this isn’t breaking news or anything, but Dennis Kneale is really annoying.
This guy is always telling people to go out and invest – the market goes up in the long run, things aren’t so bad, etc., etc., but then anytime there is a failure in the market (Enron, Madoff, whatever), he claims it’s the investor’s fault – that they were greedy or stupid.
His shtick is really tiresome now. If he wants non-professionals to invest in the market, it has to be a level, honest market.
Most investors do not have time, access, or the expertise to do extensive due diligence and they rely on credit agencies, funds-of-funds, brokers, and other agents to provide the expertise for them.
It’s quite nuts to on the one hand exhort mom and pop to invest in the markets, but to call them greedy idiots on the other when they get suckered.
The Bezzle percentage in finance varies but it is always there. So. Put no more than a small percentage in any one thing and over all you can do ok. (Don’t get greedy.)
#9,
please be next. jerk.
@9 – Those 1,100 people you talk about…what were their YTD returns?
Go cry about them on CNN.com
@9
When sh!t hits the fan and you realize you have utterly failed your clients, family, friends, and colleagues in your fiduciary responsibility, when that reality sets in, especially in light of the great wealth you may have enjoyed to-date, that, my friend, is a very dark day.
to imply that the French, Nazi sympathizers,muslim pacifiers, and the providers of the reign of terror, are moraly superior is quite a joke and embarrassing
?????? And that is good because……
Because they actually produce something of cultural value. Because unless you have been hiding under a rock our “scrappy nation” is the cause of the global financial melt down.
Because unadultered greed, with no conscience, has resulted in the greatest financial disaster since the 30s.
Not to mention that the opening of the West gave us sources of bullion, the first oil well was set up in Titusville PA, we were a country that had abundant natural resources, were the world’s largest producer of enegy which was vital during WW2 etc, take a history lesson.
#8 Have you ever been to South America? It’s not all Colombian drug lords like the movies. Wealthy people there are pretty much the same as everywhere else. They are likely to solve their problems with top international law firms, just like anyone in this mess. Don’t perpetuate stupid stereotypes, it makes you look ignorant.
LOOKING AT THE CHART OF THE FUND THAT BLOOMBERG SAYS THIS GUY HAD 100% INVESTED IN MADOFF SHOULD BE REASON ENOUGH TO SPOT THE LIE A MILE AWAY.
I’ll be quite now, but seriously, NO dips in all of 2008?! Bull.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/quote?ticker=LUXAMSB%3ALX
@9
true, but do realiaze that everyone places an implicit dollar value on their own life. There’s just no way around it. You do, everyone does.
There are several ways to measure it- how much are you willing to pay for say, a carbon monoxide detector or active stability management on your car, and also ways like the premium people insist upon for dangerous jobs like being a lumberjack or commercial fisherman. There’s a decent degree of error, but the range on most studies is that the average person values his own life at somewhere in the $6-10M range. Economists don’t like talking about it for obvious reasons, but it is what it is.
@10
Vichey more tolerable here. Guess that’s why I still have my money?
Just talked to a guy at a x-mas party who worked there….he said the place is folding
Lol, more people in need of a history lesson. Nazi Sympathizers would be the U.S. government early in the War. They were a great buffer against the red terror.
Oh you are right, we don’t go and kill innocent people in Iraq. We didn’t kill Allende. Slaughter innocents in the Philippines. Nor put in power the “terrorist” Shaw Pahlavi which has created generations of terrorists in Iran. The U.S. has never imposed a “reign of terror” on anyone.
Lol, no wonder finance is such a mess. Most of thse clowns don’t even know their own country’s history.
And yet they gave him $$ anyway.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/56537fba-d076-11dd-ae00-000077b07658.html?nclick_check=1
Duty is heavy, but death is lighter than a feather
-Japanese Proverb
@24 – Madoff hasn’t been convicted of anything. Pretrial detention is not about punishment but about flight risk and risk to the community.
Like it or not, this country was founded on the principle of “innocent until proven guilty.”
With any luck the prosecutors and the trial will be quick and Bernie will be off in prison before long.
Slap Chop
@16 exactly.
@ 26 absurd!
America is at fault for everything, what a joke you are.
“To the French, such indiscretion in the service of greed, no doubt, is far less tolerable than it might be here.”
EP, was that you I saw driving that Brown ’96 Volvo yesterday? Olive burlap sweater, awful beret, Kerry/Edwards badge on the bumper?
Go self-loathe in someone else’s neighborhood.
I hope the People in his office like Jackson Pollock.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=a63cDyL3xRRA&refer=us
@26 You are another person who resents the fact that America provides your freedom.
the honorable man killed himself
while the parasites continue to stink up this country
@36, No, you and I provide the country’s freedom. Our at least we did at one time. We are the country, and the people are not the government.
Questioning the government is in fact, the most “American” of virtues.
33 Let me defend EP here. The simple fact is that the French are more egalitarian than we are in the US. To point that out is not in any way self-loathing.
@28
If Japanese Hedge Funds had invested in Madoff we’ll be seeing a lot more of these.
Rene-Thierry Magon de la Villehuchet. This name is so long it should be two people. Then we can blame Madoff for 2 senseless deaths.
I knew the Japs took a bullet (really a blade) for the team when things got ugly, but I didn’t know the Frogs did this as well.
Remember, French food, chesse, wine and women are all quality. French banks, manufacturers and WW2 defensive lines all stink.
Hitler, who said anything about Hitler?
@26 – I think you were looking for “Shah” and not “Shaw.” If you expect anyone to take your liberal ass-clown remarks seriously, make sure your spelling is correct.
“Because they actually produce something of cultural value.”
And that would be…??? You realize that your cultural value might be retardedness to me right? Some tribe in Africa might attribute great ‘cultural value’ to plucking strings and banging rocks but it is pretty much meaningless to me!
“our “scrappy nation” is the cause of the global financial melt down. ”
Isnt that the whole awesomeness of the thing! The US enjoyed a massive boom in during 2002-2007. All this while, France was struggling with a sluggish economy and high unemployment. They booted their socialist government and got in a semi socialist guy who at least promised to set the country away from its disastrous path.
Not that they US has melted down, everyone else has melted down even MORE! They US enjoyed a boom and is not paying for it. They enjoyed shit and are not paying even more.
The US still rocks and they suck (all on a relative basis). What more do you have, francophile US hater?
@40 Including Madoff himself…that would have been the honorable thing to do.
#26 — if you want to pontificate using your sub-Chomsky “knowledge” of history please do note that while there were pro-German elements in the US (German-American Bund, Lindbergh, Joe Kennedy) they were marginal. There was a strong feeling across the US ideological spectrum that participation in WWI had been a mistake and the nation should remain aloof — not pro-either side. Thus, they were lumped together as “isolationists”. They weren’t particularly concerned about either the Red or the Brown terror, they just wanted to bury their heads in the sand.
Notably, many on the left were isolationists, buying into the “merchants of death” hypothesis that big capital benefitted from war. In particular, after the Nazi-Soviet pact and prior to Barbarossa (that is to say, during the bulk of the period the US was neutral) Communists were particularly vehement in their isolationist stance, adhering to the party line.
The US wasn’t a Nazi sympathizing country, and to the extent it (inexcusably in my eyes) dallied in joining the fight it did so due to a broad based isolationist sentiment that included just as many Stalinist as Nazi sympathizers, and included lots of moderates who wished a plague on both houses. You don’t know what you are talking about, muppet.
As to the rest of your first year undergrad “historical” drivel, please read a balanced history of the Cold War and some good books on the nature of Communism (I suggest Conquest and Applebaum to start) before pretending you have any other claims to historical knowledge. History isn’t the Fox news view, but its not your simplistic tripe either.
Piss off to Common Dreams or something.
@39 You mistake elitism for Egalitarianism. France has always been an elitist aristocrasy, where the few privilaged continue to sell egalitarianism to the masses as a large tranquilizer. Its true.. look it up.
“the concept of honor still exists across the pond”
Very very loaded statement. Would have appreciated if at least you were 1) not a citizen of this country 2) not making those statements using infrastructure almost completely derived and created in this country 3) not utilizing the freedom that some very honorable citizen in this country fought for. I doubt tht Nazis would have let you make a statement about the ‘honor’ of their country openly.
47 Actually, I’ve lived there. Lets just say that its difficult to sum up an entire national psyche in a few sentences. I do however stand by my original observation.
I agree w/ #9. This is just another empty suit who believed he was on top when in fact the house of cards was crumbling. Too dumb to see it coming!
Like one poster said, Frenchie loved the upside but didn’t have the b*lls to stick around 4 the underbelly. This shows you what these guys are made of. Not much (country clubs, maybachs, upper east side townehomes, art collections and cocktail parties). Sickening. It wouldn’t surprise me if that other empty suit Noel follows the same course. Madoff exposed them for what they are.
I think that kennie lay did the same thing, but the family put out the spin that it was a heart attack.
@46 Spectacular!!
I find that my patience is finally exhausted by this imbeciles and I now whish harm to them.
I agree w/ #9. This is just another empty suit who believed he was on top when in fact the house of cards was crumbling. Too dumb to see it coming!
Like one poster said, Frenchie loved the upside but didn’t have the balls to stick around 4 the underbelly. This shows you what these guys are made of. Not much (country clubs, maybachs, upper east side townehomes, art collections and cocktail parties). Sickening. It wouldn’t surprise me if that other empty suit Noel follows the same course. Madoff exposed them for what they are.
I think that kennie lay did the same thing, but the family put out the spin that it was a heart attack.
@22 -
9 here. Do you work for McKinsey? Lots of analysis that misses the point.
Obviously, everyone calculates risk and determines the right amount to spend to minimize or avoid risk of harm or death. I will spend $100 for a smoke detector, but not 100K, to avoid a small risk of fire. By contrast, if diagnosed with cancer, I will gladly spend 100K for treatment to avoid a severe risk of imminent death.
But all of this goes to management and miminization of future risk, not the valuation one places on one’s life. This man intentionally killed himself because of investment losses that had already occurred. He wasn’t mitigating future risk; he simply determined that, based on the amount of money he had lost, his life was not worthy of continuing.
That is a different beast. It says something about the values of the top .1% that the worth of a human being is determined by the YTD.
@26 Go hug a tree you liberal nut. people are killed in war, innocent and terrorist. true it is sad when innocence is lost but thats the reality of war, and America is losing the war because shmucks like you and @9 that are causing the troops to fight with one hand tied behind there back. Btw get back to me when you lose someone close in a terror attack.
its shoot then ask questions later. nuke all those terrorist fuckers.
“The Jewish world is not going to be the same for a while,” said Rabbi Jeremy Kalmanofsky of Congregation Ansche Chesed in New York”
Is gthe Chesed, cheesed or Cheesy?
@54 agreed.
@46, throw in Maginot Line and you will have put in all of the buzz terms from your history class.
I was raised in Krakow, Poland. Where the Arcelor Poland plant is. I was not able to leave the country tell 1990.
I lived under communism and certainly don’t need to read about it in a book such as you have. Or perhaps I’ll crack open Applebaum to tell me about it.
Finally, someone in this world still has some honor left over and does the right thing. Too bad Madoff doesn’t follow him and commit hari kari. Instead, Madoff walks around nyc with his head held high, while smirking, because he knows the fix is in, and he’ll get off, or do a little bit of time in a country club prison.
When people make big mistakes, they need to remedy it by removing themselves from society. Thankfully, and surprisingly, this cheese eating surrender monkey frenchman did the honorable thing, once in his life. Amen!
Jim Perucci
@46… you should have seen the brown terror I unleashed this morning… I had to give MYSELF a courtesy flush
54 – take your rambo fantasies elsewhere bitch. no one is impressed.
@54 I lost many relatives to Communism, but perhaps since the oppressors were not Muslim, that doesn’t constitute terror to you.
@54, you are a sissy. When you actually serves then you can extol all of the glories of people dying in war.
I was in Kosovo and for a time Montenegro. War is not fun. Easy to “cheer” on when you one is cosseted in a Park Avenue office. Hell, if you actually are there.
@46, perhaps one of you want to “pontificate” on the brown terror that was in my toilet this morning. Or better the red terrors that were burning my crotch! None of us want to hear you bitches argue first year history at Brown.
who’s bigger scum? Noel or David Kabiller?
@64
If you know something dish it !
53 I think you’re missing the point. He’s taking his life not because of the money he lost, but because of the money he lost that belonged TO OTHERS. Its about not wanting to face the music.
58 This idea of a country club prison is always tossed around. There was actually an article in Fortune a few years ago about a consultant that preps important people (I think he worked with the Sotheby’s chairman) for serving a prison term and I remember it saying that the country club thing is long past. These places, while not exactly Rikers Island, are no picnic anymore, given the number of drug offenders they house. Can anyone refute or verify?
Hervé Jean-Pierre Villechaize (the little guy from the 007 movies) also commited suicide.
@68 aka Kick Knack in man with the Golden Gun!
@68 – it was a short death.
@9/53 (22)
well, yes, in the driest of terminology his issue was “sunk cost” vs “future risk management,” but it doesn’t change the simple assertion that you (and everyone else) do place a dollar value on your own life.
On the other hand, if you’re in his shoes, you realize that your entire life’s work has made the world an irretrievably worse place. It’s not like being down YTD; he was down Lifetime-to-date in a hole too deep to even hope to dig himself out of. Consequently, everything he’s ever earned in that time and everything he has is now shown to be entirely undeserved. He is in short, a complete and utter failure. I know it’s not a nice or tactful thing to say about the recently deceased, but it nonetheless is true. Some people just can’t deal with that kind of failure. Furthermore, it’s not like he failed in an “investment-didn’t-work-out-for-reasons-we-couldn’t-forsee” kinda way. He failed because he didn’t do his due diligence. Personally I think suicide in that situation is cowardly rather than honorable, but that’s an interminable and impossible to settle argument.
It’s not just a “values of the top .1%” or a US v. France thing, either. People in other lines of work who fail that spectacularly do the same thing. Engineers sometimes commit suicide when their bridges collapse. And even in the pure business-failure or personal-finance failure, historically it was an extreme but still kinda run-of-the-mill response. Personal financial failure and professional failure are and always have been near the top of the list for suicide. Just because it’s in the news and involves a guy with an almost parodic French name who managed money for a living doesn’t make it something that justifies cosmic conclusions about today’s/American/French/wealthy (or fill in the blank) culture.
Hillarious (fake) personal Bernard Madoff blog here:
http://www.bernard-madoff-scam.blogspot.com
I’m pretty sure it’s Harakiri… not Hari Kari.
@44 – Who in Palm Springs has been a victim of Madoff? While I’m sure his fraud extends to California, I believe you meant Palm Beach. That, unlike Palm Springs, is in Florida, on the east coast of the United States. Do you need a geography lesson as well?
And Greenberg and Madoff are still free, leaving in luxury appartments… What a beautiful world ! Then look at Obama choice for the SEC and Federal reserve : Shapiro, Tarullo and Gensler! Three more jewish insiders! (BTW, please don’t yell “nazi”, Vichy” and other stupidities or else I say “ZOG”) What’s next a federal bailout to help Madoff hedge fund ?
@69 – Nick Nack, dumbfuck.
@76 – 7 PM, SE corner of Bryant Park, ask for Steve T, you pussy.
I will bet you 10k, you won’t call me a dumbfuck to my face and survive a size 14 shoe knocking out what few teeth you have left, peg boy.
Wait, so Harry Carry was involved in the Madoff Scheme?
@70 – Well played sir, well played.
@68 – Don’t forget “Fantasy Island” with the one and only Ricardo Montalbán.
The plane boss, the plane!
Madoff the jew that did the world in. Nice one.
I wonder if this is the beginning stages for a new world order. Things have been spinning out of control for awhile, with no response. Open the free market so as to have a world event, and then come in and be the hero to put things in the order you want them to be.
Control, Control, Control
Back in the day a person could count on being with a company for years and retire with a nice little egg nest along with the feeling of security.Now that that is gone so is everyones caring about a company or attitude of a company being part of an extended family.(Who has stolen everyone’s wealth?) Where are we about to be herded.
stay tuned
I wonder if this is the beginning stages for a new world order. Things have been spinning out of control for awhile, with no response. Open the free market so as to have a world event, and then come in and be the hero to put things in the order you want them to be.
Control, Control, Control
Back in the day a person could count on being with a company for years and retire with a nice little egg nest along with the feeling of security.Now that that is gone so is everyones caring about a company or attitude of a company being part of an extended family.(Who has stolen everyone’s wealth?) Where are we about to be herded.
stay tuned
I wonder if this is the beginning stages for a new world order. Things have been spinning out of control for awhile, with no response. Open the free market so as to have a world event, and then come in and be the hero to put things in the order you want them to be.
Control, Control, Control
Back in the day a person could count on being with a company for years and retire with a nice little egg nest along with the feeling of security.Now that that is gone so is everyones caring about a company or attitude of a company being part of an extended family.(Who has stolen everyone’s wealth?) Where are we about to be herded.
stay tuned
I wonder if this is the beginning stages for a new world order. Things have been spinning out of control for awhile, with no response. Open the free market so as to have a world event, and then come in and be the hero to put things in the order you want them to be.
Control, Control, Control
Back in the day a person could count on being with a company for years and retire with a nice little egg nest along with the feeling of security.Now that that is gone so is everyones caring about a company or attitude of a company being part of an extended family.(Who has stolen everyone’s wealth?) Where are we about to be herded.
stay tuned
I wonder if this is the beginning stages for a new world order. Things have been spinning out of control for awhile, with no response. Open the free market so as to have a world event, and then come in and be the hero to put things in the order you want them to be.
Control, Control, Control
Back in the day a person could count on being with a company for years and retire with a nice little egg nest along with the feeling of security.Now that that is gone so is everyones caring about a company or attitude of a company being part of an extended family.(Who has stolen everyone’s wealth?) Where are we about to be herded.
stay tuned
Well, I for one would welcome our new NWO masters and their black helicopters if it would eliminate the quintuple poster @ #82-86 and his/her poor grammar and punctuation, witless paranoia and general idiocy.
bella never stole your money. she is dead and bernie is still in a penthouse. this has truly been a bad year.
such an emo way to go out
will his name fit on a tombstone?