<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR>Dead financier lost own fortune
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<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->PARIS - Mr Rene-Thierry Magon de la Villehuchet (below) saw his fortune and his loved ones' money disappear along with his clients' when he lost the US$1.4billion (S$2billion) he had invested with Bernard Madoff, the French financier's brother said.
Mr Villehuchet, 65, was found dead at his desk in New York on Tuesday, with both of his wrists slashed and a bottle of pills nearby.
His brother said Mr Villehuchet had invested virtually all his own funds, along with money from friends and family, with Madoff, who was arrested Dec11 and allegedly told agents from the US Federal Bureau of Investigation that he had masterminded a US$50billion fraud.
Mr Villehuchet 'invested his own fortune' - up to several tens of millions of dollars - his brother, Mr Bertrand Magon de la Villehuchet, 74, said in a telephone interview. 'He was totally ruined.'
He added: 'My brother was a man of simple tastes. A lot is being said about him, like that he flew in by helicopter to his chateau - that's not true.'
The younger Mr Villehuchet had begun investing with Madoff 'three or four years ago', his brother said. 'He trusted Madoff completely.'
Bertrand said he had lost 20per cent of his savings in the scam, which he said was much less than his brother lost. He added that he would be joining in class action lawsuits against Madoff and Wall Street regulator, the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The Magon de la Villehuchet family can trace the origins of its wealth to the 17th century, when Rene-Thierry and Bertrand's ancestors made a fortune in shipping, said Mr Georges le Gorgeu, a local historian in Plouer-sur-Rance, the town in Brittany where the Magon de la Villehuchet family has owned a chateau for several hundred years.
The family was so rich and prominent that it loaned money to France's Sun King, Louis XIV, who ennobled them. Many of their aristocratic ancestors died on the guillotine during the French revolution. AP
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<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->PARIS - Mr Rene-Thierry Magon de la Villehuchet (below) saw his fortune and his loved ones' money disappear along with his clients' when he lost the US$1.4billion (S$2billion) he had invested with Bernard Madoff, the French financier's brother said.
Mr Villehuchet, 65, was found dead at his desk in New York on Tuesday, with both of his wrists slashed and a bottle of pills nearby.
His brother said Mr Villehuchet had invested virtually all his own funds, along with money from friends and family, with Madoff, who was arrested Dec11 and allegedly told agents from the US Federal Bureau of Investigation that he had masterminded a US$50billion fraud.
Mr Villehuchet 'invested his own fortune' - up to several tens of millions of dollars - his brother, Mr Bertrand Magon de la Villehuchet, 74, said in a telephone interview. 'He was totally ruined.'
He added: 'My brother was a man of simple tastes. A lot is being said about him, like that he flew in by helicopter to his chateau - that's not true.'
The younger Mr Villehuchet had begun investing with Madoff 'three or four years ago', his brother said. 'He trusted Madoff completely.'
Bertrand said he had lost 20per cent of his savings in the scam, which he said was much less than his brother lost. He added that he would be joining in class action lawsuits against Madoff and Wall Street regulator, the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The Magon de la Villehuchet family can trace the origins of its wealth to the 17th century, when Rene-Thierry and Bertrand's ancestors made a fortune in shipping, said Mr Georges le Gorgeu, a local historian in Plouer-sur-Rance, the town in Brittany where the Magon de la Villehuchet family has owned a chateau for several hundred years.
The family was so rich and prominent that it loaned money to France's Sun King, Louis XIV, who ennobled them. Many of their aristocratic ancestors died on the guillotine during the French revolution. AP
