Madoff Fund Operator De La Villehuchet Found Dead

Thierry Magon de La Villehuchet, who ran a fund that invested with Bernard Madoff, was found dead today in his New York office in an apparent suicide, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said. “Our investigative premise is that it was a suicide,” Kelly said in an interview. De La Villehuchet, 65, was found “with his feet propped up on his desk, a trash pail nearby to collect blood,” and no sign of a second person, Kelly said. The money manager had “multiple stab wounds” to his arms and wrists, a box-cutter and pills were found nearby, and no suicide note was found, Kelly said. De La Villehuchet was co- founder and chief executive officer of Access International Advisors, a New York firm that invested $1.4 billion with Madoff, who was arrested on Dec. 11 for allegedly running a $50 billion Ponzi scheme.

The death of de la Villehuchet, who founded Access in 1994 with Patrick Littaye, came as lawsuits mounted in connection with investors victimized by Madoff. Fairfield Greenwich Group, a hedge-fund firm that had $7.5 billion invested with Madoff, has been sued by investors for allegedly failing to protect their assets. A New York woman who says she lost most of her savings is seeking $1.7 million in damages from the Securities and Exchange Commission for Madoff losses. The tally of investors hurt by Madoff continues to grow. Pedro Almodovar, the Spanish film director known for movies such as “Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown” has about $280,000 at risk, El Economista reported. Credit Lyonnais

De La Villehuchet was chairman and CEO of Credit Lyonnais Securities USA, the U.S. investment banking arm of the French bank, according to Access marketing documents. Prior to joining Credit Lyonnais in 1987, he ran Interfinance, an international broker firm specializing in French, Belgian and Italian stock markets that he founded in 1983. Access managed $3 billion and had 26 employees according to marketing documents dated September, and its LUXALPHA SICAV- American Selection fund invested solely with Madoff. Access said last week that it was working with lawyers to assess the situation. UBS AG was LUXALPHA’s administrator until this year, and is no longer involved with it, said Karina Byrne, a UBS spokeswoman. Clients of Madoff had at least $36 billion with his firm, according to a Bloomberg tally that may include some double counting. Before his arrest, Madoff, 70, confessed to employees that his “giant Ponzi scheme” may have cost as much as $50 billion, according to an FBI complaint.

His misconduct may have stretched back to at least the 1970s, two people familiar with the government’s inquiry of Madoff said last week. Madoff is now under house arrest at his New York apartment.

Obama to Release Report on Blagojevich Contacts

HONOLULU — President-elect Barack Obama plans Tuesday to release an internal review of the communications that his advisers had with the office of Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich of Illinois, who is accused by federal prosecutors of seeking favors in exchange for filling Mr. Obama’s vacant Senate seat.Mr. Obama, who is on vacation with his family here in Hawaii, is not planning to answer questions or speak publicly about the report. The review, prepared by lawyers for the Obama transition team, will highlight the telephone calls and contacts that a small circle of Mr. Obama’s advisers had with aides to Mr. Blagojevich last month. It is scheduled to be released Tuesday at 4:30 p.m. Eastern time, aides said. The report, according to three people familiar with its findings, is a memorandum that will lay out a narrative in about a dozen paragraphs the limited contact Mr. Obama’s advisers had with the governor’s office. Mr. Obama said last week that it was “frustrating” not to be able to answer questions, but said his review had found that his advisers were not involved in any inappropriate talks about the Senate seat.

Rahm Emanuel, the Illinois congressman selected by Mr. Obama as his White House chief of staff, had a handful of contacts with the governor’s office. At least two other names also are expected to be mentioned in the review, including David Axelrod, a senior adviser to Mr. Obama, who was the chief strategist of the presidential campaign.

Valerie Jarrett, a close friend to the Obama family who is a co-chairwoman of the transition effort, is also expected to be referred to in the report. Her name was raised as a possible candidate for the Senate seat, but she withdrew from consideration last month and took a position in the White House. The report, and the timing of its release, was a product of cooperation from the office of Patrick J. Fitzgerald, the United States attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, who is leading the federal investigation into Mr. Blagojevich. But according to people familiar with the report, lawyers who compiled the Obama review did not have access to wiretapped telephone conversations between Obama aides and the governor’s office. Last week, Mr. Fitzgerald asked the Obama transition team to delay the release of its report so prosecutors could interview witnesses in the Blagojevich investigation. The office had yet to complete its interviews late last week, people familiar with the case said, and asked the Obama team not to release its report on Monday. It is unknown whether one of the leading unanswered questions will be resolved: Did Mr. Obama, through his aides, give Mr. Blagojevich a list of preferred candidates for the Senate seat? At a news conference three days after the election, Mr. Obama said he was staying out of the matter. “There are going to be a lot of good choices out there,” he said, “but it is the governor’s decision to make, not mine.”
Gregory B. Craig, the incoming White House counsel, helped prepare the report that is set for release on Tuesday. He has worked with the United States Attorney’s Office, which has repeatedly suggested that Mr. Obama’s staff is not suspected of any wrongdoing. The Obama report may not be the final word on the case. The review was compiled from memory by Mr. Obama’s aides, rather than from recordings of any phone calls. The taped conversations, which were picked up through the court-approved wiretapping of Mr. Blagojevich and his chief of staff, John Harris, will not become public until the case moves through the courts or goes to trial. Mr. Emanuel believes he was taped on a court-approved wiretap as he discussed the Senate seat, but has told associates he did not engage in any deal-making with Mr. Blagojevich.

SKorean lawmakers brawl over US free trade pact

SEOUL, South Korea – Brawling South Korean lawmakers tried to sledgehammer their way into a parliamentary meeting room barricaded by the ruling party as the National Assembly descended into chaos Thursday over a free trade agreement with the United States.

Opposition parties were incensed by the ruling Grand National Party's move to submit the agreement to a committee on trade, setting in motion the process for the accord to win approval in the legislature.

Security staff and aides from the ruling party stood guard outside the room to keep opposition lawmakers away after the committee's GNP-affiliated chairman invoked his right to use force to "keep order" in parliamentary proceedings.

Scuffles broke out as dozens of opposition members and their aides attempted to push their way into the office. TV footage showed people from both sides shoving, pushing and shouting in a crowded hall at theNational Assembly building amid a barrage of flashing cameras.

Opponents later used a sledgehammer and other construction tools to tear open the room's wooden doors, only to find barricades of furniture set up inside as a second line of defense.

Cable news channel YTN reported that an electric saw was used to open the door. YTN footage showed security guards spraying fire extinguishers at those trying to force their way inside and one man 

Obama chooses 3 more to take on financial reforms

CHICAGO – President-elect Barack Obama on Thursday named three veteran regulators to help clean up financial debacles that he said occurred because government overseers "dropped the ball."

Obama wouldn't weigh in on whether he would support a decision byTreasury Secretary Henry Paulson to tap the second $350 billion installment of the $700 billion financial bailout program. Major auto companies are pleading for emergency aid, which could come from that pot.

"I think it's important that the Treasury, the Fed and all of us do whatever's required to make sure that our financial system is stable and secure," Obama said. But he added: "We cannot afford a collapse of our financial system. Main Street can't afford it." He said he would evaluate any Paulson signals about what is necessary.

As Obama spoke at a Chicago news conference rounding out his economic team, the White House said it is considering "orderly" bankruptcy as a way of dealing with the desperately ailing U.S. auto industry. President George W. Bush, asked about an auto rescue plan during an appearance before a private group, said he hadn't decided what he would do but also spoke of the idea of bankruptcies organized by the federal government as a possible way to go.

Oprah, HBO to team on movie projects

Oprah Winfrey's Harpo Films has entered an exclusive three-year deal with HBO, the network announced Tuesday. Winfrey's company, which had worked with ABC for the last 15 years, will create scripted series, mini-series, films and documentaries for HBO. It isn't known yet when Winfrey's first HBO show will air, but Harpo executives will begin "brainstorming" with HBO's creative staff in early 2009.

"I think the question will be, how are we going to do everything [we want to do], and that will be a Class A problem," HBO co-president Richard Plepler said in a phone press conference with reporters. Kate Forte, president of Harpo Films, told reporters in the Tuesday phone conference that the "creative freedom" represented by HBO would allow Harpo to expand the kind of fare it comes up with. "There are natural limitations to being on network television," which is dependent on ratings and commercial sponsorship, Forte said. "HBO is not concerned with that. ... The measure of success for them is quality.

"For the last year and a half, every time I would bring a project to Oprah, she would say, 'This is perfect for HBO,' " Forte added.

OPEC Will Make Record Output Cut to Revive Oil Prices

OPEC, supplier of more than 40 percent of the world’s oil, will reduce production by a record 2 million barrels a day to shore up prices as a global recession cuts demand, Saudi Arabia’s oil minister said. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries is set to slash production quotas from 27.3 million barrels a day starting on Jan. 1, Ali al-Naimi, who sets policy in the world’s largest oil exporter, said before today’s meeting in Oran, Algeria. A formal announcement is expected once the meeting is over. quick divorce Oil’s $100-a-barrel collapse from July’s record prices has curbed revenue for producers, threatening government budget shortfalls. Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah said last month that his country needs crude at $75 to spur development. Russia, the largest non-OPEC producer, may join the group in cutting output as global oil demand falls for the first time since 1983.

“Now, the question mark is non-OPEC cooperation,” said Mike Wittner, head of oil market research at Societe Generale in London. “More importantly, will the market believe that Russia or other non-OPEC” producers will agree to further reductions on top of declines that are going to happen anyway.

Russia may announce a 400,000-barrel-a-day cut in output to support the group’s action, Kuwaiti Oil Minster Mohammed al-Olaim said yesterday. Azerbaijan’s oil minister said today his country may lower production as much as 300,000 barrels a day.

Al-Naimi said the group’s rate of compliance with a previous output cut was 85 percent. Asked if the latest reduction would start from Jan. 1, the minister replied: “Yes.”

Manifa Start

Saudi Arabia’s Manifa oil field will start in 2011 only if consumers require the extra crude, al-Naimi said later in an interview. “When we need it, it will be there,” he said, adding that the start of the field depends on the “market situation.”

Crude oil for January delivery climbed as much as $1.90 to $45.50 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, and traded at $45.46 as of 9:37 a.m. London time.

The price slump since July spurred OPEC to reduce output for the first time in two years when it met in October. The group deferred a decision on further cuts at its Nov. 29 consultative meeting in Cairo.

Today’s decision will exceed the 1.9 million-barrel cut agreed on in March 2000. That was a bigger reduction in percentage terms than today’s likely 7.3 percent cut because Iranian production was excluded from the quota at that time.

The meeting started today with an opening session at 9:30 a.m. local time in the Sheraton Hotel in Oran, followed by a closed-door session at 11 a.m., a lunch with Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika at 1 p.m., and a further closed-door session later in the afternoon. A press conference is tentatively scheduled for 4 p.m.

Obama picks Vilsack as Agriculture secretary

Reporting from Washington and Chicago -- Former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack, who aggressively campaigned for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton before his state's caucuses in January, will be named Agriculture secretary by President-elect Barack Obama, three Democratic officials confirmed Tuesday. The formal announcement was expected this morning at a news conference in Chicago.

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Vilsack declined to comment on the report. "Those questions should be answered by the transition office and the president-elect," he said. The former two-term Democratic governor has been a supporter of renewable energy and pushed for development of Iowa's ethanol industry. The state is one of the nation's top producers of corn and has a large meat-packing industry. During the campaign for the Iowa caucuses, Vilsack was the top Clinton official in the state and often appeared with the New York senator. He also frequently questioned Obama's preparedness for the presidency.

Obama's team takes shape

» A mixture of old a new faces make up the beginnings of the 44th president's administration. The nominations must be confirmed by the Senate.

But after Obama won the Democratic nomination, Vilsack campaigned for his general election effort in Iowa and other states.

Vilsack would be the fourth high-level appointment of a former presidential campaign rival to Obama's team, following Clinton for secretary of State, Delaware Sen. Joe Biden for vice president and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson for Commerce secretary.

"He knows production agriculture, and he knows the changes we need to ensure its profitability and future, including for young and beginning farmers and ranchers," Sen. Tom Harkin, an Iowa Democrat who chairs the Senate Agriculture Committee, said in a statement.

Iowa's Republican senator also endorsed the selection.

"He has a firsthand look at the role of agriculture in our global economy," Sen. Charles E. Grassley said in a statement. "I'm happy for him, happy for Iowa, and this is welcome news for agriculture."

A former mayor and state legislator from Mount Pleasant, Iowa, Vilsack campaigned for president himself, but dropped out of the race in February 2007 after just 86 days of campaigning.

While running for president, he took an unusual position for a farm-state official, arguing to cut subsidies for agricultural commodity crops and channel the money toward improving environmental practices. He has argued that agricultural policy should focus on production of renewable energy. He also wrote newspaper articles before the election in support of Obama's energy policies.

In an essay published in October, he urged greater investment in cellulosic ethanol, bio-fuel production plants and wind farms, and advocated "carbon credits" for farmers whose production reduces greenhouse gases associated with global warming.

Some advocates of organic food, meanwhile, have criticized Vilsack as being too supportive of biotechnology company efforts to market genetically modified foods.

In 1998, Vilsack was elected Iowa's first Democratic governor in 32 years. He won reelection in 2002 but did not run a third time, keeping a term-limit promise he had made.

A native of Pittsburgh, he was one of three finalists to be Sen. John F. Kerry's running mate in 2004.