The Gates of Hell

Source: The Associated Press

A fund manager who lost more than $1 billion of his clients’ money to Bernard Madoff was discovered dead Tuesday after committing suicide at his Manhattan office, marking a grim turn in a scandal that has left investors around the world in financial ruin.

Rene-Thierry Magon de la Villehuchet was found sitting at his desk at about 8 a.m. with both wrists slashed, NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said. A box cutter was found on the floor along with a bottle of sleeping pills on his desk. Police did not find a suicide note.

De la Villehuchet was one of several money managers and investors left reeling in the wake of Madoff’s alleged $50 billion Ponzi scheme, and his suicide demonstrates how the repercussions of this gigantic scam are intensifying by the day.

De la Villehuchet, 65, was a distinguished financier who came from a long line of aristocratic Frenchmen, and he tapped his connections in the world of European high society to attract clients to his firm, Access International Advisors. It was not immediately clear how he knew Madoff or who his clients were.

He grew increasingly subdued after the Madoff scandal broke, arousing suspicion among janitors in his Madison Avenue office tower Monday night when he demanded that they be out of there by 7 p.m. Less than 13 hours later, a security guard checked on him in his 22nd-story office suite. But de la Villehuchet was dead — a trash can placed near his body to apparently catch the blood, Browne said.

His death came as swindled investors began looking for ways to recoup their losses. Funds that lost big to Madoff are also coming up against investor lawsuits and backlash for failing to properly vet Madoff and overlooking some red flags that could have steered them away. It’s not immediately known what kind of scrutiny de la Villehuchet was facing over his losses.

De la Villehuchet (pronounced veel-ou-SHAY) comes from rich French lineage, with the Magon part of his name referring to one of France’s most powerful families. The Magon name is even listed on the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, a world-famous monument that was commissioned by Napoleon in 1806.

“He’s irreproachable,” said Bill Rapavy, who was Access International’s chief operating officer before founding his own firm in 2007.

The Frenchman’s firm enlisted intermediaries with links to upper-crust Europeans to garner investors. Among them was Philippe Junot, a French businessman and friend who is the former husband of Princess Caroline of Monaco, and Prince Michel of Yugoslavia.

De la Villehuchet, the former chairman and CEO of Credit Lyonnais Securities USA, was also known as a keen sailor who regularly participated in regattas and was a member of the New York Yacht Club.

He lived in an affluent suburb in Westchester County with his wife, Claudine. They have no children. There was no answer Tuesday at the family’s two-story house. Phone calls to the home and de la Villehuchet’s office went unanswered.

Guy Gurney, a British photographer living in Connecticut, was friends with de la Villehuchet. The two often sailed together and competed in a regatta in France in November.

“He was a very honorable man,” Gurney said. “He was extraordinarily generous. He was an aristocrat but not a snob. He was a real person. When he was sailing, he was one of the boys.”

The two were supposed to have dinner last Friday but Gurney called the day before to cancel because of the weather. But during the call, de la Villehuchet revealed he had been ensnared in the Madoff deceit.

“He sounded very subdued,” Gurney said.

Gurney said de la Villehuchet was happily married to his wife.

“I can’t imagine what it’s like for her now,” he said.

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Source: thisislondon.co.uk

A top HSBC banker has been found hanged in a £500-a-night hotel suite in Knightsbridge with a note by his side.

Hotel workers found Christen Schnor, 49, in his Jumeriah Carlton Tower Hotel suite last Wednesday. He is believed to have been naked and hanging by a belt in the wordrobe.

Police were not treating the death of Danish-born Mr Schnor as suspicious.

It is believed Mr Schnor’s family had left for Denmark, where they had planned to spend Christmas, days earlier. He had rented a £390-a-day apartment for his wife Marianne and their two children in Lower Sloane Street.

Mr Schnor had become embroiled in a row with the landlords of the apartment in January. He claimed he did not get possession of the flat for a month after signing the two-year lease.

Mr Schnor worked at HSBC’s Canary Wharf offices and earned a six-figure salary as the bank’s head of insurance, with responsibility for the UK, Turkey, the Middle East and Malta.

A colleague said: “He did not seem under any pressure and was a quiet man.” He joined the bank in June 2007. An HSBC spokesman said: “HSBC would like to express our deepest sadness over the loss of a respected colleague.”

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Source: sbj.net

An autopsy of Joplin banker Kristy Hunt has revealed she died of self-inflicted wounds, the Joplin Police Department said Thursday.

Hunt, 49, reportedly worked as secondary market manager for Community Bank & Trust’s mortgage department at the bank’s 414 E. 32nd St. location in Joplin, before resigning late last week.

According to police, Hunt’s adult children found her after 3 p.m. Tuesday, lying unconscious on the floor of her home on South Michigan Avenue. Hunt died a few hours later at St. John’s Regional Medical Center in Joplin. Joplin police initially investigated the case as a suspicious death and requested assistance from the Tri-State Major Case Squad.

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Source:  MarketWatch

Michael Connell, the Bush IT expert who has been directly implicated in the rigging of George Bush’s 2000 and 2004 elections, was killed last night when his single engine plane crashed three miles short of the Akron airport. Velvet Revolution (”VR”), a non-profit that has been investigating Mr. Connell’s activities for the past two years, can now reveal that a person close to Mr. Connell has recently been discussing with a VR investigator how he can tell all about his work for George Bush. Mr. Connell told a close associate that he was afraid that George Bush and Dick Cheney would “throw [him] under the bus.”

A tipster close to the McCain campaign disclosed to VR in July that Mr. Connell’s life was in jeopardy and that Karl Rove had threatened him and his wife, Heather. VR’s attorney, Cliff Arnebeck, notified the United States Attorney General , Ohio law enforcement and the federal court about these threats and insisted that Mr. Connell be placed in protective custody. VR also told a close associate of Mr. Connell’s not to fly his plane because of another tip that the plane could be sabotaged. Mr. Connell, a very experienced pilot, has had to abandon at least two flights in the past two months because of suspicious problems with his plane. On December 18, 2008, Mr. Connell flew to a small airport outside of Washington DC to meet some people. It was on his return flight the next day that he crashed.

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Source: Ohio.com

A single-prop, private airplane crashed next to a vacant house on Charolais Street Northwest Friday evening, exploding into flames and killing the pilot.

Michael Connell, 45, of Bath Township, was alone in the plane, according to State Highway Patrol Lt. Eric Sheppard.

Connell was a prominent Republican political consultant. He founded New Media Communications in Richfield, which developed campaign Web sites for Republican presidential candidate John McCain and President George W. Bush.

The plane was attempting to land around 6 p.m. Friday at Akron-Canton Airport when it crashed about three miles short of the runway.

Taylor Fano, who lives two doors away from the crash site on Charolais, said she heard the crash.

”It blew up and shook the ground a little bit,” Fano said. ”I was standing in the kitchen and I looked out the window and all I saw was fire.”

Fano said the plane came down in the front yard at 2017 Charolais, then skidded along the side of the house.

The plane came down between two houses, separated by about 100 feet, in the upscale neighborhood. Neighbors said one of the homes was unoccupied, while the other was lighted with holiday decorations.

They said wreckage from the plane could be seen sticking up from the ground.

”It took out the flagpole and the cement blocks surrounding the flagpole like a little planter,” Fano said. ”It skidded across the driveway and right in between a line of pine trees and a small fence around an in-ground pool.”

Neighbor Julie Hufstetler, who lives across the street from the crash site, said she was getting ready for a party at their home when she heard the explosion.

”It was kind of a swish and a boom,” she said.

When she looked outside, she saw flames billowing from the garage.

Greentown Fire Department Capt. Lorin Geiser said he arrived within three minutes of getting several 911 calls about a plane down.

Geiser said the crumbled fuselage from the plane was fully engulfed. It took less than five minutes to extinguish the flames.

The burning debris apparently set fire to the side of the garage of the unoccupied home.

There was no interior damage to the house.

Several neighbors, bundled up against the frigid temperature, were walking around taking pictures with their cell-phone cameras.

The plane was on final approach to Akron-Canton Airport’s Runway 23 when it went down, said Kristie Van Auken, spokeswoman for the airport.

Van Auken identified the plane as a Piper Saratoga, a single-engine propeller craft capable of carrying up to seven passengers.

The plane, which was made in 1997, is owned by a Richfield corporation, Sierra-November Aviation, at 3046 Brecksville Road, according to the Federal Aviation Administration registry.

FlightAware, a Web site that tracks flight plans, reported that the plane was coming from College Park, Md., departing at 3:31 p.m. and scheduled to arrive at Akron-Canton at 5:43 p.m.

The plane had flown from Akron to College Park Thursday morning.

Van Auken didn’t think the plane was based at the Akron-Canton Airport, but added, ”We can’t verify that at this time.”

Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board were expected at the crash site Friday night. An FAA spokeswoman said investigations typically take weeks and even months or longer to complete.

In addition to the Greentown Fire Department, others responding included firefighters from Hartville, Uniontown, Plain Township and North Canton.

Van Auken said several members of the airport operations staff were also at the crash scene.

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