René-Thierry Magon de la Villehuchet (23 April 1943 – 22 December 2008) was a French aristocrat, money manager, and businessman.

[4][5][6][7] In New York, Villehuchet was head of Interfinance, a brokerage firm, before becoming chairman and CEO of Crédit Lyonnais Securities USA in 1987.

The FBI and U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) do not believe Villehuchet was involved personally in the US$50 billion fraudulent financial Ponzi scheme which Madoff was arrested for masterminding, on 11 December 2008.

Investigators also identified a number of prominent investors who gave money to Villehuchet that was tied to the Madoff scandal:[further explanation needed] Philippe Junot, former husband of Princess Caroline of Monaco, and Prince Michael of Yugoslavia, as partner and investor-relations executive, respectively, in the firm; and Liliane Bettencourt, the world's wealthiest woman at the time (d. ⁠2017), the 86-year-old daughter of L'Oréal founder Eugène Schueller.

[12] In his book, No One Would Listen, Markopolos recalled that he developed an alternative product to Madoff for his then-employer, Rampart Investment Management.

In 2002, while touring Europe alongside de la Villehuchet to recruit potential investors, Markopolos recalled hearing managers from 14 separate funds claim that Madoff's investment advisory arm was "closed," but that their fund was the only source of new money for Madoff–a classic "robbing Peter to pay Paul" scenario.

[4] Over the last two decades of his life, Villehuchet was renovating and organizing the archives of Le Château de Plouër[13] in Plouër-sur-Rance, Brittany, which he inherited from an uncle.

[4] On 23 December 2008, Villehuchet was found dead in his company office on Madison Avenue in New York City[14] - the first casualty of the Madoff investment scandal.