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Madoff Investor Awaits Verdict on Whether ‘Imbecile’ or ‘Dupe’

Other News Materials 5 January 2009 06:53 (UTC +04:00)

Patrick Littaye, co-founder of Access International Advisors, lost his savings after investing with Bernard Madoff, expects to lose his house in his hometown of Saint-Malo, France, and says he'll canvass investors over the next few weeks to see whether he has also lost his business, Bloomberg reported.

Littaye, 69, invested all of his own money with Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC last year, enticed by the firm's positive returns as other hedge funds slumped. His error was compounded because he borrowed money to increase the return on his investment, leaving him with $4 million in personal debts, Littaye said in telephone interviews from Jan. 2 through Jan. 4. He declined to specify the amount he had lost.

"I'm going to sell everything I have and start over," Littaye said from Brussels, adding that he planned to subsist on his French social security payments. "For Access, we'll go to our investors over the next couple of weeks and we'll see what they think of us."

Littaye's partner, Thierry Magon de la Villehuchet, chose a different course. The 65-year-old co-founder and chief executive officer of Access was found dead Dec. 23 at his office in New York. Villehuchet killed himself after it became clear he wouldn't be able to recover the funds he and his clients invested with Madoff, his brother, Bertrand Magon de la Villehuchet, said in a Jan. 2 interview.

"I will suffer all the trials that come my way," Littaye said. "Thierry was less passive in his outlook. He felt that he had decision-making authority over his days on Earth."

Madoff's firm collapsed last month after he told his sons it was a $50 billion Ponzi scheme, according to a complaint filed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Shortly before he was arrested, Madoff allegedly told employees he had $200 million to $300 million left, the complaint said.

"I don't know yet how our correspondents will receive us," Littaye said. "Maybe as an honest imbecile, or an honest imbecile like 40 million others, or someone duped by a fraud. I don't know yet."

Littaye, who has a wife and two grown children, said he hasn't yet grieved for his partner and friend of almost 40 years.

"Right now it's really total incomprehension," he said. "I just don't understand any of it."

About three-fourths of the $3 billion clients placed with Access was invested through Madoff, a proportion that had risen steadily over the past 18 months, Littaye said.

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