Humanities & Social ScienceMadoff Investor Awaits 'Imbecile' or 'Dupe' Verdict:
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.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."
And some candor:
"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."
His business partner, René-Thierry Magon de la Villehuchet, famously committed suicided because of his shame. Meanwhile, no word from Walter Noel or J . Ezra Merkin, who were responsible for the loss of billions.
Comments
Villehuchet deserves to be praised for being the only one of the lot of them with any honor.
Posted by: Matt McIntosh | January 5, 2009 5:44 PM
".. he planned to subsist on his French social security payments. "
At least, his Social Security wasn't transformed into a stock plan,
as had been the proposal of the Bush administration and Republican party here in the U.S. for many years, and fortunately widely rejected. (If he lived in Italy, he could have 'benefited' from a privatization of social security, as many there now find out:
See http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=aty4gEh9wups&refer=home "Italian Pensions Sapped by Private Funds Bush Backed,"
or http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/01/05/a-bullet-dodged/ ).
Posted by: A | January 5, 2009 6:09 PM
Here is what's wrong with the system as a whole:
Access managed $3 billion and had 26 employees
Too much money running on too little.
Posted by: DK | January 5, 2009 8:48 PM
A friend of mine, British, aged 82, says that one of the changes in his life that interests him most is that, when he was young, if anyone had said "They order these matters better in France", everyone would have laughed. Now they would nod.
Posted by: dearieme | January 6, 2009 6:49 PM
I hate to sound like a talking point, A, but at least in the US Social Security literally fits the exact definition of a Ponzi scheme in the precise same way Madoff's scam does. I'm 23 now, and it is certain that Social Security will not exist in any meaningful way when I'm old enough to draw it. The only difference between my SS payments now and Madoff's investors is that at least they had a choice.
Posted by: Matt Springer | January 8, 2009 1:17 PM