A French hedge fund founder who lost $2 billion he'd invested with disgraced money manager Bernie Madoff killed himself in his Manhattan office today.

Rene-Thierry Magon de la Villehuchet, founder of Access International Advisors, had just confessed the investment and probable billion-dollar loss to clients, and had spent days frantically trying to figure out ways to recover his losses.

Police were called to Access International's office early today, and found one dead victim, reported by French newspaper La Tribune to be Villehuchet.

[A friend] told AFP Villehuchet was "devastated" and feared his clients would turn against him in the courts.

"Access was his whole life, and Madoff was a manager in whom he had complete trust. I lunched with him two weeks ago and he said, how lucky it was that Madoff was the only manager still doing well at the moment."

Villehuchet was married, without children.

Yesterday an executive with HSBC, which similarly lost billions due to Madoff, hanged himself in a London hotel room.