Investor Suicide Sign Of Things To Come?

Hard-Luck Investor Tells The Early Show That He Expects More Madoff-Related Tragedy

(CBS/AP)  The suicide of a investor who lost more than $1 billion of his clients' money as a result Bernard Madoff's alleged ponzi scheme may be just the beginning, says a fellow hard-luck investor who predicted such incidents shortly after news of the scandal broke.

"It was kind of an easy prediction to make," Robert Chew, who lost $1.2 million in Madoff's fund, told CBS' The Early Show Wednesday. "I'm afraid that this is just the beginning of this kind of devastation and tragedy. It's just going to continue."

In a column Chew wrote for Time Magazine nine days ago, he said the scandal was "the kind of news that's been known to cause shortness of breath, sudden cardiac arrest, revolvers pulled from bedside drawers."

On Tuesday, the body of Rene-Thierry Magon de la Villehuchet was discovered in his Madison Avenue office after he apparently swallowed sleeping pills and slashed his wrists with a box cutter, police said.

No suicide note was found, said NYPD spokesman Paul Browne.

The bloody scene marked a grisly turn in the Madoff scandal in which money managers and investors were ensnared in an alleged $50 billion Ponzi scheme. De la Villehuchet is believed to have lost about $1.4 billion to Madoff.

But de la Villehuchet was just one of many investors now facing severe losses to savings and retirement accounts.

"Mr. Madoff really sort of set off a financial neutron bomb here," said Chew. "[Investors are] sitting in their nice homes with their nice cars, with their nice artwork, but the reality is they only have two or three months of cash available and then it's over."

De la Villehuchet, 65, was an esteemed financier who tapped his upper-crust European connections to attract clients. It was not immediately clear how he knew Madoff or who his clients were.

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Follow the Madoff Money Trail
A look at the people and institutions that have lost millions in the alleged Bernie Madoff Ponzi scheme.

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He grew increasingly subdued after the Madoff scandal broke, drawing suspicion among janitors at his office Monday night when he demanded that they be out of there by 7 p.m.

A partner in the firm asked a security guard later in the evening to check and see if De La Villehuchet was still there, but the door was locked, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said.

When a guard came into the 22nd-story office suite the next morning, less than 13 hours later, the Frenchman was dead, Browne said. There were several cuts "to his arm, to his wrist and also to his bicep area," Kelly said.

His death came as swindled investors began looking for ways to recoup their losses. Funds that lost big to Madoff are also facing investor lawsuits and backlash for failing to properly vet Madoff and overlooking 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.

[wardoglrs]

We dont need more regulation we need fraud enforcement

[hetup-2009]

To DannyInSoCal

Keep your money

Stay in Southern California you were made for it

**********

[emperorlotku]

The scary part of the Madoff scandal is that if he got away with it for so long, there are probably hundreds of other investor scams running around the world investment community. That the Madoff scandal could even happen is due to the lack of oversight by out governmental regulators. Don''t blame either Party because they are both equally guilty for not doing their jobs. The next candidate I vote for is the candidate that spends the least ammount in his campaign. That proves to me he''s capable of running a fiscally responsible tenure as an elected official. The latest run for the Presidency cost both parties over 1.3 billion dollars (an obscene ammount). This is what you can count on. The candidate that spends the least, owes the least to the least ammount of corporate intirests. Our politicians are all bought off, corrupt to the soul, and owe their allegiances to the corporations not to the voters. That is how the Madoff scam was allowed to go on as long as it did, and that''s why there is hundreds more scams out there that will come out. It would be intiresting to find out who Madoff contributed to politically.

[cheetah-man7]

Don''''t worry Richie - Those of us Republicans with wealth have already protected it from your Obama messiah and the blathering sheep that follow him.

I personally USED to contribute about $25k year to various charitities. Not any more.

I will simply respond to each request "Please contact your local Democratic Politician for all further donations." And in my social circles - I''''m not the only one doing so either...

I''''m having a very Merry Chirstmas with my investments safe and secure - Richie, You be sure to enjoy your day off from Walmart. And thanks for collecting those carts. You are doing a great job...

DannyInSoCal



YOU are a classic example of what is wrong in this country. Your arrogance and your greed are what distinguishes you as a Repulican. I am grateful that I voted for Obama this time around and even more grateful that your smug attitude will come back and bite you on the a$$. Trust me, your wealth is NOT as safe as you think. When you lose it all, you will certainly be the fist in line at the local soup kitchen pushing all the other folks aside thinking that you deserve to eat first. You and your type disgust me and so many others in this nation.

[wl7bzh]

Its true, women and men attempt suicide at similar rates, but statistically men are much more successful

Posted by legacyABQ at 11:28 AM : Dec 24, 2008

Men feel they don''t have a way out. With women there is alimony.

[shanev137]

The world would be a better place if these ripoff artists offed themselves.

[mahdeealoo]

Hey out there. Remember, it is only money. Money is not your life. There is always more money but once your life is taken, there is nothing left for those who love you. Reach down inside of yourself and HOLD ON. Tomorrow is a better day...Merry Christmas!

[andrew_693]

the reason why republicans have money is basically because they robbed other people and never worked for an honest living like the majority of them. They use the military morons to provide them with free gas, and other goods and to kill anybody in the world that opposes their greed.

[noloyalisti]

Maybe we can do assisted suicide for the greed stricken CEOs as they go to the bank or to their yachts or their 4th vacation houses.

[dannyinsocal]

Typical Dem response RichieNJ.

If you have more wealth than me - You must deserve to lose it.

If you are happier than me - You deserve to be unhappy.

Pathetic example of redistribution theory at its finest.

Don''t worry Richie - Those of us Republicans with wealth have already protected it from your Obama messiah and the blathering sheep that follow him.

I personally USED to contribute about $25k year to various charitities. Not any more.

I will simply respond to each request "Please contact your local Democratic Politician for all further donations." And in my social circles - I''m not the only one doing so either...

JThom is correct on the CRA issue. Billions of $$ worth of bad loans were forced by the Dem''s who kept increasing the REQUIRED mortgages be given to "disadvantaged" borrowers. So much for phase one of Democratic redistribution...

I''m having a very Merry Chirstmas with my investments safe and secure - Richie, You be sure to enjoy your day off from Walmart. And thanks for collecting those carts. You are doing a great job...

DannyInSoCal

[credibility2]

The so-called poor of this nation have it better than the vast majority living in the world today. Let''s keep things in their perspective. Too many today have had it too good for too long, living off of credit cards and getting into greater levels of debt. It wasn''t the Repubs that told these types to go and keep charging things they really didn''t need in the first place. Oh, and I''m sick and tired of seeing many going into food pantries, smoking, using cell phones and driving better cars than I have. They''re hypocrites and frauds.

[credibility2]

Ah yes, the ole'' gleeful bit for losses to the wealthy. The ones who help to create jobs, give vast amounts to charitable organizations, hospitals, foundations or universities. The ones whose losses are still painful. Let''s not be too smug to think that just because someone who wasn''t wealthy lost something that somehow they are better human beings for being an average work-a-day person. Many of the wealthy also work, too. Are some this gleeful when a wealthy sports or entertainment figure has a flop at the box office, or whose team loses big time and continue to be paid their egregious and unearned salaries? Probably not. The arrogance of some!

[richnj1]

I feel sorry for the millionaires who lost their savings to a fraud, but I don''t feel MORE sorry for them than I do for the MILLIONS of factory workers or store clerks who have lost their jobs because of the Bush economy.

Even if you WERE a millionaire, you can still work at WalMart, get a small apartment, and eat three meals a day. We don''t throw people in debtors'' prison anymore, so they''d be free. And in our legal system, no matter how much you owe, your debtors have to leave you with a reasonable sum for living expenses. These ex-wealthy people wouldn''t even be in poverty (and poverty in the U.S. still means being richer than most of the world).

If you decide you''d rather not live at all than live in the lower middle-class of the richest country in the world ... well, I guess that defines Republicans.

[jthomp79]

Madoff was a big Democrat supporter, and donated a lot of money to political campains of the Democrats. Many of his investors were Democrats as well.

[dpu3jwallace]

And, the BIG QUESTIONS ARE: A) Is Madoff Still Out On A BAIL That Is Only 1/5,000th of What He Admittedly Stole -- Or, 1/50,000th of What He Admittedly Stole (If He Was Allowed To Put Up Only 10%)?; and, B) Does Anyone Else Think That Maybe a Major Payoff Might Have Taken Place in Coordination With This "Bail" Deal?

[hunterdon6]

The guy should of took Madoff out first. No jury in the US would of convicted him.

[rkkirch]

It seems like he was a man of honor, of which it seems we have to few now.

[edward1975-2009]

I guess the stress was more than he could bear.

[jthomp79]

Goverment tries economic stimulus programs, and none of them work. People still think the goverment knows what it''s doing and let it run its foul course.
Market tanks. Jobs get cut. Investors sell off in anticipation on Obama increasing the capitol gains taxes to a rediculus number. Remember when Regan lowered the cap gains tax the goverment actually brought in more money, and the economy grew.
People see what is going on, and tell Madoff I want my money out of the fund. He tries to get new suckers to cover the losses, but to no avail. Now he comes out with the news... it was all a scam.

Now people are poorer than they ever have been before.

I heard this quote on the radio last night, "You may be flying in a gulfstream tonight, but never forget how to ride the donkey with a blanket on you back."

[jthomp79]

I''ll make this short.
The market is in trouble due to bad mortgages, and mortgage backed securities. Of course these loans were started to be dolled out by the Community Re-Investment Act of the I believe Jimmy Carter Years. Clinton years it expanded banks were threatened to have their charters revoked if they did not serve underserved communities. Bush mark 2 acted more like a liberal democrat than a conservative republucan, and expanded the home ownership dream. Grab bag mortgages artificially inflate home values. Making homes affortable for everyone makes them affordable to no one. Economy is robust for a while, but then the price of oil skyrockets, at about the same time that peoples balloon payments come due. People start spending less and less money.