Liliane Bettencourt was the wealthiest woman in the world and the heiress of L’Oreal Empire. After she had handed over £15.5 billion of her $22.0 billion to Bernard Madoff, she was found dead yesterday in New York. Daughter of L’Oreal founder Eugene Schuller, Bettencourt has been the first investor in a fund managed by Access International Advisors.

Also Thierry Magon de la Villehuchet, the co-founder and chief executive of Access International, was discovered dead yesterday in his office from New York. Apparently, he committed suicide for fear that his customers would turn against him in court after everyone had found out about the biggest corporate fraud that has ever happened.

The $50 billion pyramid investment swindle scheme made by Madoff emerged and clients of Access International would have certainly blamed Villehuchet too. So he decided to be pulled out of the business after he had been trying for a week to recover $1.5 billion in European funds that Access International had invested through Madoff's business.

Access International had $3 billion to play with and the agency had raised the money mainly from rich investors from Europe. On December 12, the day after Madoff’s arrest, Villehuchet said in a letter that funds including its LUXALPHA SICAV-American Selection were invested only with Madoff’s investment firm.

Bettencourt, 86, was on Madoff’s list as she was also hit by the greatest financial fraud ever. Other affected by Madoff’s fraud were people like Alicia Koplowitz, the Spanish billionaire, Steven Spielberg, the Hollywood director and Elie Wiesel, the Nobel laureate.