Access International Advisors and Marketers (AIA Group), a

Securities and Exchange Commission The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government, created in the aftermath of the Wall Street crash of 1929. Its primary purpose is to enforce laws against market m ...

-registered

investment advisor A financial adviser or financial advisor is a professional who provides financial services to clients based on their financial situation. In many countries, financial advisors must complete specific training and be registered with a regulatory ...

and a hedge fund of funds, was a

research analyst Research is creative and systematic work undertaken to increase the stock of knowledge. It involves the collection, organization, and analysis of evidence to increase understanding of a topic, characterized by a particular attentiveness to c ...

investment agency that specialized in managing hedged and structured

investment portfolio In finance, a portfolio is a collection of investments. Definition The term "portfolio" refers to any combination of financial assets such as stocks, bonds and cash. Portfolios may be held by individual investors or managed by financial profess ...

s that involve commercial physical and biological research. It was a feeder fund into the securities firm of

Bernie Madoff Bernard Lawrence Madoff ( ; April 29, 1938April 14, 2021) was an American financial criminal and financier who was the admitted mastermind of the largest known Ponzi scheme in history, worth an estimated $65 billion. He was at one time ...

, as part of the

Madoff investment scandal The Madoff investment scandal was a major case of stock and securities fraud discovered in late 2008. In December of that year, Bernie Madoff, the former Nasdaq chairman and founder of the Wall Street firm Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities ...

History

The company was co-founded in 1994 by French bankers, yachtsman

René-Thierry Magon de la Villehuchet René-Thierry Magon de la Villehuchet (23 April 1943 – 22 December 2008) was a French aristocrat, money manager, and businessman. He was one of the founders of Access International Advisors (AIA Group), a company caught and subsumed in the ...

(the former CEO of

Crédit Lyonnais The Crédit Lyonnais (, "Lyon Credit ompany) was a major French bank, created in 1863 and absorbed by former rival Crédit Agricole in 2003. Its head office was initially in Lyon but moved to Paris in 1882. In the early years of the 20th cen ...

Securities USA) and Patrick Littaye.

Philippe Junot Philippe Junot (born 19 April 1940) is a French venture capitalist and property developer, who was the first husband of Princess Caroline of Monaco. He has business interests in Paris, Spain and New York City. Background and family Philippe Juno ...

, the first husband of Princess Caroline of Monaco, was a partner of the company. The firm told investors in 2008 that it conducted extensive

due diligence Due diligence is the investigation or exercise of care that a reasonable business or person is normally expected to take before entering into an agreement or contract with another party or an act with a certain standard of care. Due diligence ...

on funds in which it invested. Access International Advisors LLC’s LuxAlpha Sicav-American Selection was a

UCITS The Undertakings for Collective Investment in Transferable Securities Directive (Directive 2009/65/EC, "UCITS") is a directive of the European Union (EU) that allows collective investment schemes to operate freely throughout the EU on the basis o ...

fund that invested 95% of its money with

. It had $1.4 billion in

net assets Net worth is the value of all the non-financial and financial assets owned by an individual or institution minus the value of all its outstanding liabilities. Financial assets minus outstanding liabilities equal net financial assets, so net w ...

a month before Madoff's December 2008 arrest and was exposed for $1.4 billion, which it had placed with Madoff's securities fund, in the Madoff

Ponzi scheme A Ponzi scheme (, ) is a form of fraud that lures investors and pays Profit (accounting), profits to earlier investors with Funding, funds from more recent investors. Named after Italians, Italian confidence artist Charles Ponzi, this type of s ...

. It failed after Madoff’s activities were discovered. De la Villehuchet harboured some hope of recovering the money he'd lost to Madoff–including his and Littaye's personal fortunes. However, by December 18, a week after the scandal, it was apparent that all was irretrievably lost, and that both he and AIA were finished. He didn't have nearly enough money to pay his employees or the rent, and there were rumors that he'd face criminal charges. A friend told him, "Your professional life is over." On December 23, 2008, less than two weeks after Madoff's arrest, de la Villehuchet reportedly committed suicide. He was found dead in his company office on

Madison Avenue Madison Avenue is a north-south avenue in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, New York, that carries northbound one-way traffic. It runs from Madison Square (at 23rd Street) to meet the southbound Harlem River Drive at 142nd Stree ...

in New York City. His wrists and left bicep were slit,Berenson, Alex, and Matthew Saltmarsh
"Madoff Investor’s Suicide Leaves Questions"
''The New York Times'', 2009-01-02, p. B1

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

edition. and de la Villehuchet had taken sleeping pills, in what appeared to be a suicide. Although no

suicide note A suicide note or death note is a message written by a person who intends to die by suicide. A study examining Japanese suicide notes estimated that 25–30% of suicides are accompanied by a note. However, incidence rates may depend on ethnic ...

was found at the scene, his brother in France received a note shortly after his death in which he expressed remorse and a feeling of responsibility. In 2009, Littaye was charged in France with participating in a breach of trust, a crime punishable by as many as three years in prison.

References

{{Madoff investment scandal Madoff investment scandal Defunct hedge funds

History

See also

References