Chan, survival at the Wall Street is easier?

According to CNN:

The body of Steven L. Good was found in his Jaguar on Monday. The car was spotted in a parking lot of a wildlife preserve in Kane County, Illinois, just outside Chicago, authorities said.

No note was found, and police say they do not know how long the 52-year-old had been in the vehicle.

Good was the chairman and chief executive officer of Sheldon Good & Co., a major U.S. real estate auction company.

The death comes amid great turmoil in the country's real estate industry. In his role as chairman of the Realtors Commercial Alliance Committee, Good commented on tough conditions last month at a business conference.

On a memorial blog set up by the Chicago Association of Realtors, for which Good once served as president, friends and colleagues described him as a gregarious man with a big personality. He was a savvy businessman who built his company into a major national real estate company that did deals with Donald Trump, they said.

"It is testimony to Steve's leadership that Sheldon Good & Co. remains well-positioned for the future," said Sheldon Good President Alan R. Kravets.

"The guy was a true blue Realtor," said Barbara Matthopoulis, the association's spokeswoman.

She was new to real estate when she met Good more than a year ago. He took time to give her advice that has helped her grow to love the business.

"Anybody who knew him would speak to his leadership, his generosity, his attitude. The guy was just very positive, always smiling, always telling you a story. He was engaged. Everyone is really very shocked," she said. "I doubt anyone could help explain why this happened."

Kane County Sheriff's Department spokesman Lt. Pat Gengler said authorities don't have any "concrete evidence if this had anything to do with his finances."

The company was founded by Good's father, Sheldon Good, in 1965, according to the firm's Web site.

Steven Good had "been involved in the sale of more than $4 billion of real estate, including commercial, office, retail, industrial, residential, and vacant land sites," it says.

"Mr. Good is the driving force behind the expansion of the company, which has been ranked as the largest firm in the United States exclusively conducting real estate auctions."

Good, who was also an attorney, wrote a book, "Churches, Jails and Gold Mines: Mega-Deals From a Real Estate Maverick." According to Amazon.com, Donald Trump wrote the afterword.

The first chapter begins, "Our auction company is to the real estate business what Sotheby's and Christie's is the fine art and collectibles business." The book goes to say that as of its 2003 publication, the firm had sold 40,000 properties totaling $8 billion.

"If you lined up 1,000 people and said pick the one that might do this to themselves, he would be the last person I would choose," said Wayne Caplan, who worked at Sheldon Good for six years and knew Steven Good personally. "He had a zest for life. He has a wife and kids and he had so much in his life."

Chan, survival in Europe sometimes is not that easy, either.

According to DNN:

German billionaire kills self, family says

Story Highlights
Adolf Merckle was No. 94 on Forbes list of world's richest people
Merckle's net worth estimated to be $9.2 billion
Billionaire was killed by a train in German town of Ulm
Family says financial woes "broke the passionate family business man"

Chen, I copied this from the Chicago Sun-time:

December 24, 2008

BY ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW YORK-- A fund manager who lost more than $1 billion of his clients' money to Bernard Madoff was discovered dead Tuesday after committing suicide at his Manhattan office, marking a grim turn in a scandal that has left investors around the world in financial ruin.

Rene-Thierry Magon de la Villehuchet was found sitting at his desk at about 8 a.m. with both wrists slashed, NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said. A box cutter was found on the floor along with a bottle of sleeping pills on his desk. Police did not find a suicide note.

De la Villehuchet was one of several money managers and investors left reeling in the wake of Madoff's alleged $50 billion Ponzi scheme, and his suicide demonstrates how the repercussions of this gigantic scam are intensifying by the day.

De la Villehuchet, 65, was a distinguished financier who came from a long line of aristocratic Frenchmen, and he tapped his connections in the world of European high society to attract clients to his firm, Access International Advisors. It was not immediately clear how he knew Madoff or who his clients were.

He grew increasingly subdued after the Madoff scandal broke, arousing suspicion among janitors in his Madison Avenue office tower Monday night when he demanded that they be out of there by 7 p.m. Less than 13 hours later, a security guard checked on him in his 22nd-story office suite. But de la Villehuchet was dead - a trash can placed near his body to apparently catch the blood, Browne said.

His death came as swindled investors began looking for ways to recoup their losses. Funds that lost big to Madoff are also coming up against investor lawsuits and backlash for failing to properly vet Madoff and overlooking some red flags that could have steered them away. It's not immediately known what kind of scrutiny de la Villehuchet was facing over his losses.

De la Villehuchet (pronounced veel-ou-SHAY) comes from rich French lineage, with the Magon part of his name referring to one of France's most powerful families. The Magon name is even listed on the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, a world-famous monument that was commissioned by Napoleon in 1806.

"He's irreproachable," said Bill Rapavy, who was Access International's chief operating officer before founding his own firm in 2007.

The Frenchman's firm enlisted intermediaries with links to upper-crust Europeans to garner investors. Among them was Philippe Junot, a French businessman and friend who is the former husband of Princess Caroline of Monaco, and Prince Michel of Yugoslavia.

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 lived in an affluent suburb in Westchester County with his wife, Claudine. They have no children. There was no answer Tuesday at the family's two-story house. Phone calls to the home and de la Villehuchet's office went unanswered.

Guy Gurney, a British photographer living in Connecticut, was friends with de la Villehuchet. The two often sailed together and competed in a regatta in France in November.

"He was a very honorable man," Gurney said. "He was extraordinarily generous. He was an aristocrat but not a snob. He was a real person. When he was sailing, he was one of the boys."

The two were supposed to have dinner last Friday but Gurney called the day before to cancel because of the weather. But during the call, de la Villehuchet revealed he had been ensnared in the Madoff deceit.

"He sounded very subdued," Gurney said.

Gurney said de la Villehuchet was happily married to his wife.

"I can't imagine what it's like for her now," he said.

According to CNN:

She used to lunch at the Four Seasons. Now the best-selling author jokes that she's inviting friends to Taco Bell. Call it gallows humor, but Alexandra Penney has just lost her life's savings. She invested every penny with accused Ponzi-schemer Bernard Madoff.

CNN's reported on Jan. 28, 2009:

" FDA: Salmonella strains were found 12 times from 2007 to 2008 at plant in Georgia, USA. Inspectors from the FDA found more contamination this month. More than 300 items PCA peanut products have been recalled."

Six have died from Salmonella poisoning so far.