Bernie Madoff & Thierry Magon de La Villehuchet

June 22 – Claudine de la Villehuchet re: husband and Bernie Madoff

January 12, 2009

Man with no conscience gets to stay in his $7M penthouse apartment instead of a cell. Who did more damage: Bernie Madoff or Martha Stewart? Think of all the people who will suffer because of how he ripped off them off. And what type of recourse have they? There should be a special place in hell for someone who steals from charities. Probably why his family gave him up.

Anyway the judge ruled he gets to live in his penthouse under these additional restrictions. From FRANK AHERNS:

Madoff must create an inventory of all the valuable items in his apartment. [a little late]

The government must check the inventory list against the items in his apartment every two weeks.

The government can check Madoff’s outgoing mail.

As far as the investor Thierry Magon de La Villehuchet who committed suicide – his brother has an interesting take. I’m not sure how “honorable” it is when you leave behind all the people who lost their life savings because you were had by a Ponzi scheme.

Bloomberg’s ALAN KATZ:

Bertrand Magon de la Villehuchet said a sense of honor led the descendent of French army officers and an ennobled shipping family to commit suicide after he put his friends and family in a “catastrophic” financial situation.

“For him, it was a positive act of honor,” said Bertrand, 74, who lives in Paris and received a note from his brother after Thierry’s death. “He brought his friends and clients, and a lot of them were his friends, to a catastrophic situation.

“I was bragging at parties that I’d only lost 5 percent this year,” Bertrand said at his apartment on the Place des Vosges in Paris. “Now I guess I’ve lost 25 percent.”

Theirry’s toxicology is still pending from the autopsy.

How many more victims of Madoff will chose to end their lives? And what about the ones who will smoke, eat, drink and drug themselves to death? Abuse their family or go postal? It’s endless.

German billionaire, Adolf Merckle chose to throw himself in front of a train the day before his company was to be sold.