Madoff Colleague Found Dead in Swimming Pool

Picower made $7.2B, lands on Forbes list

(NEWSER) - Jeffry Picower is a secretive guy, which must have made his turn in the spotlight this week all the more uncomfortable. The former lawyer, who was already being sued for $5.1 billion in alleged profits from Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme, cracked Forbes’ list of the 400 wealthiest Americans on the same day a federal investigator sued him for another $2.1 billion, ProPublica reports. More»

(NEWSER) - At least one person looks to have benefited more from Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme than Bernie Madoff, ProPublica reports. Jeffry Picower, a secretive philanthropist and investor in medical technologies, is on the books as having withdrawn some $5.1 billion in returns from 1995 to 2008, well beyond his original investment. Records show some fishy numbers in Picower’s accounts, and the Madoff trustee has filed a lawsuit against him. More»

Ponzi schemer serving 150-year sentence becomes celeb in prison

(NEWSER) - Bernie Madoff isn't wasting time fretting over the lives he ruined and the fortunes he destroyed. Shortly after he arrived at a federal prison in North Carolina last summer, another inmate was pestering him about the people he had duped, and the Ponzi schemer lost his patience. "Fuck my victims,” he said, according to a New York magazine account based on interviews with two dozen other prisoners. "I carried them for twenty years, and now I’m doing 150 years." More»

Will be harder for bilked investors to recoup losses

(AP) - The death of Jeffry Picower, accused of profiting more than $7 billion from the investment schemes of longtime pal Bernard Madoff, will make it more difficult for suing investors to recoup their money, attorneys said late yesterday. Palm Beach police are investigating the death, after Picower's wife discovered the 67-year-old's body at the bottom of the pool at their $33 million oceanside mansion. Picower's doctor said he was suffering from heart disease and Parkinson's. More»

Ponzi kingpin now sharing cell with drug offender

(NEWSER) - Bernie Madoff ran the druggiest, most decadent securities fraud in town, according to court papers filed yesterday. Madoff's offices were so awash in cocaine—paid for with investors' money—that it was nicknamed "the North Pole," and the firm hosted drug-fueled parties featuring topless waitresses, according to a lawsuit filed by swindled investors. Nuggets about Madoff's precipitous fall from the high life are tucked throughout the 276-page document seeking restitution from Madoff, family members and other financial entities who knew bout the scam, according to the suit. More»