NEW YORK — The fraud may not have been the work of Rene-Thierry Magon de la Villehuchet, but it came on his watch, and that was shame enough.

Friends and colleagues tried to console the fund manager, the scion of French aristocracy who despaired after losing more than $1 billion of his wealthy clients' money in the Ponzi scheme allegedly run by Wall Street wizard Bernard Madoff.

"Listen, people make mistakes," Leon Cooperman, founder of hedge fund Omega Advisors, said he told de la Villehuchet in a telephone conversation Monday. "You're not at fault, and you have to pick yourself up from this."

But when a security guard opened the door to de la Villehuchet's office at Access International Advisors the next morning, he found the businessman dead at his desk, both of his wrists slashed. A box cutter and a bottle of sleeping pills lay nearby. Police say it was a suicide.

De la Villehuchet's death marked a grim addition to the toll laid bare since Madoff was arrested Dec. 11, telling FBI agents he had masterminded a $50 billion fraud. And it reinforced the emotional wounds the scandal has inflicted on its victims.

De la Villehuchet was shouldering part of the blame, having put so many millions of his investors' fortunes into Madoff's fund only to find out it was a complete fraud. His fund was among the biggest losers in the Madoff fraud, and one of a handful to get taken for more than $1 billion.

Cooperman strongly disputed some reports that de la Villehuchet might have had any deeper involvement with Madoff.

But the responsibility weighed heavily on de la Villehuchet, a descendant of one of France's most distinguished families who had a deeply ingrained sense of personal decorum, associates said. It is not yet known who his clients were.

"This guy is aristocracy. One of his ancestors was the admiral for Napoleon in the Napoleonic wars," said Cooperman, who traveled extensively with de la Villehuchet to meet with potential investors. "I think this thing brought great disgrace and embarrassment, and he didn't have the capacity to deal with it. In the end, he was sensitive to the disgrace and being involved with this thief."

Access International is believed to have lost $1.4 billion with Madoff, whom it entrusted to manage investments in one of its funds. The Luxalpha SICAV-American Selection fund, registered in Luxembourg, was marketed primarily to wealthy European investors.

Cooperman described de la Villehuchet as a businessman who was in constant contact with clients, even on vacations.

De la Villehuchet, the former chairman and CEO of Credit Lyonnais Securities USA, was also known as a keen sailor who regularly participated in regattas and was a member of the New York Yacht Club. He and his wife, also French, lived in the New York suburb of New Rochelle.