René-Thierry Magon de la Villehuchet
| Thierry Magon de La Villehuchet | |
|---|---|
| Born | 23 April 1943 Saint-Malo, France |
| Died | 22 December 2008 (aged 65) New York, New York, U.S. |
| Cause of death | Suicide |
| Residence | New Rochelle, New York |
| Occupation | Investment manager |
| Known for | Founder of Access International Advisors |
| Relatives | Bertrand Magon de la Villehuchet (brother) |
René-Thierry Magon de La Villehuchet (23 April 1943 – 22 December 2008) was a French , money manager, and businessman. He was one of the founders of Access International Advisors (AIA Group), a company caught and subsumed in the Madoff investment scandal in 2008. He committed suicide after losing an estimated $1.4 billion in the Madoff scheme.
René-Thierry Magon de La Villehuchet was born in Saint-Malo into the Magon family, wealthy Breton shipbuilders. In 1978, he earned his MBA from HEC Paris. He moved to New York City in 1982.
In New York, Magon de La Villehuchet was head of Interfinance, a brokerage firm, before becoming chairman and CEO of Crédit Lyonnais Securities USA in 1987. He also contributed to the founding of Apollo Management, financial management firm established by financier Leon Black.
Later, he founded Access International Advisors, a research analyst investment agency which specialized in managing hedged and structured investment portfolios that involve commercial physical and biological research. It had connections to wealthy and powerful aristocrats from Europe. Magon de La Villehuchet's family had done business with many of these aristocrats and their ancestors for almost 300 years.
Its funds enlisted intermediaries with links to some of Europe's high society to garner clients. The FBI and U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) do not believe Magon de La Villehuchet was involved personally in the US$50 billion fraudulent financial Ponzi scheme which Madoff was arrested for masterminding, on 11 December 2008. Bloomberg News reported on 2 January 2009 that the AIA funds had increased aggregate exposure to Madoff from 30% to 75% of a total US$3 billion assets in 2008, for a US$2.25 billion exposure. It also identified Philippe Junot, former husband of Princess Caroline of Monaco, and Prince Michael of Yugoslavia, as partner and investor-relations executive, respectively, in the firm; and Liliane Bettencourt, the world's wealthiest woman, the 86-year-old daughter of L’Oréal founder Eugène Schueller, as an early investor.
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