Washington - The owner of a firm which managed a 1.4- billion-dollar Luxembourg-based hedge fund that was heavily invested in the soured Madoff firm was found dead in his office, the New York Times reported Tuesday.

Rene-Thierry Magon de la Villehuchet, 65, a founder of the hedge fund Access International Advisors, was found at his desk with wounds to his arms and a trash can next to the desk that collected the blood. The death was considered a possible suicide, the Times reported, quoting a police official who talked to the financial news wire Deal Book

De la Villehuchet's firm had managed the investment fund Luxalpha, which had reportedly lost up to 1.4 billion dollars that had been invested with the US money manager Bernard L Madoff.

Madoff, 70, a former chairman of the Nasdaq exchange on Wall Street, was arrested earlier this month for running a 50-billion- dollar Ponzi scheme in which money from new investors was used to pay off older investors. (dpa)