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Madoff bonanza Picower widow forfeits $7B from Ponzi scheme By KAJA WHITEHOUSE Last Updated: 8:10 AM, December 18, 2010 Posted: 11:39 PM, December 17, 2010 The widow of late philanthropist Jeffry Picower, who made billions in phony profits investing with Ponzi king Bernie Madoff, agreed to return a staggering $7.2 billion to federal prosecutors in the largest recovery to date for victims of the massive fraud. The huge windfall brings the total amount recovered since Madoff confessed to his crimes just two years ago to $9.8 billion -- nearly half the estimated $20 billion investors lost in the scheme.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – A man accused of making more than $7 billion off the investment schemes of jailed financial manager Bernard Madoff drowned after having a heart attack, authorities said Monday. Jeffry Picower, 67, was found at about noon Sunday by his wife, Barbara, at the bottom of a pool at their oceanside mansion. She pulled him from the water with help from a housekeeper. He died a short time later at a nearby hospital. An autopsy conducted Monday found he suffered a heart attack and drowned, said Dr. Michael Bell, chief medical examiner for Palm Beach County....

Oct. 25, 2009— The man who made $7 billion in the Bernie Madoff Ponzi scheme, Jeffry Picower, was found dead in his Palm Beach, Fla., swimming pool Sunday. The Palm Beach Fire Department told ABC News that Picower had no pulse when fire rescue workers arrived at his oceanfront mansion after his wife called 911. She and his housekeeper pulled his body from the pool shortly after noon. No one benefited more from the Madoff scheme that Picower, according to bankruptcy lawyers who sued him and alleged he had taken out $7 billion more than he had put in. Click...

PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) - Jeffry Picower, a Florida philanthropist alleged to have extracted billions from Bernard Madoff's investment scheme, drowned in his pool Sunday, police said. He was 67. The former New York lawyer and accountant had been a friend of Madoff for decades. A statement from Palm Beach police said Picower's wife and a maid found the body at the bottom of the pool Sunday afternoon and rescue workers could not revive him. Picower was transported to Good Samaritan Medical Center where he was pronounced dead at about 1:30 p.m.

Authorities say he was found at the bottom of his Palm Beach home's pool Sunday afternoon by his wife and could not be revived...

U.S. prosecutors have broadened their criminal investigation of the Bernard Madoff case beyond the friends and family of the confessed swindler to at least eight investors and associates, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday, citing people familiar with the matter. The paper named three investors under investigation by the U.S. Attorney's Office, including Jeffry Picower and Stanley Chais, two philanthropists who are the target of lawsuits brought by the trustee liquidating the Madoff firm. Carl Shapiro, a women's clothing entrepreneur and close friend of Madoff, is also under criminal investigation, the article said. Investigators have gathered evidence of Picower and...