Guy Who Made More Than $7 Billion Off Madoff Found At Bottom Of Pool
Jeffry Picower, the only Madoff investor to wind up on the Forbes list of the 400 richest Americans, was found dead at the bottom of his pool Sunday, says the AP. He is accused of making more than $7 billion off of Madoff's ponzi scheme.
An autopsy is scheduled for today in Palm Beach County. Picower was #371 on the 2009 Forbes list. It was his debut.
From the AP:
Some victims of Madoff's vast Ponzi scheme say Picower was the fraud's biggest beneficiary. In a lawsuit to recover assets, trustee Irving Picard demands he return the allegedly bogus profits.
UPDATE: The word from Palm Beach County is heart attack.
Autopsy set for dead Madoff associate in Florida [AP]
(Photo:C. Barr)
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Comments:
@The Ghost of SirNotAppearing: His contention that the funds were gained legitimately don't hold water.
@The Ghost of SirNotAppearing: The plaintiffs in the class action suit were confused when they were told to pool their resources.
I heard all of his assets were underwater...
Things that make you go.. Hmmm.....
@Evil Otto - sleep deprived ftl: Yep, the stories behind this whole thing gets stranger, and stranger...
Sounds like a suicide.
You would think he would make a raft out of money.
Kind of like the CEO of Enron offing himself before he could be forced to testify shady things about his ties to Bush... things that make you go hmmmm....
See, filling a swimming pool with money is a bad idea, no matter what the cartoons show you.
It's way too likely a suicide. He was being sued by the bankruptcy trustee to take back (most of) the money he made from Madoff. You don't get money like this back very easily without a LOT of pain on the person who has it.
And yes, the bankruptcy court does have the legal power to take back money going back a certain amount of time, which is longer when a crime is involved as compared to a shorter time for otherwise legitimate payments.
Did he know Madoff was doing illegal things? Then yes, he should give the money back. If he did not know his money was being used illegally, he should keep the money. That is unfair, but if you want everyone to be equal, go to a communist country where everyone is equal(ly poor).
@JGKojak: Are you thinking of Ken Lay? While he managed to end up dead rather suddenly and mysteriously, no one has figured out a way to easily self-induce a heart attack. Of course, someone could have used CIA-like techniques to kill him.
Is that the swimming pool where the tiles were imported from Pompeii?
@easy2panic: So if someone come in your house and steals all of your stuff, and I buy it from them at a flea market, then it's just OK for me to kkep it??
HELLLOOOOO..have you ever heard of receiving stolen property?
Whether he knew it or not it goes back to rightful owners if it was gained illegally.
@Skaperen: You're probably right. Anything liquid is going to be hidden or already invested. So, the court would start carving up his home, holdings and belongings, until they reached $7 million.
*looks up*
Oh, $7 BILLION. Oh. Yeah, unless it's hidden in Pago Pago, he's losing everything he has.
I've apparently seen one-too-many previews for "The Men Who Stare at Goats."
I read the sentence, "An autopsy is scheduled for today in Palm Beach County," as 'an Auto-Psy is scheduled...'
It took me at least two minutes to stop wondering why they were bringing in a psychic to help figure out if this was a homicide or not.
I cannot say I feel badly for the bastard, and that this has not happened sooner. Somewhere in the legion of people swindled by Madoff and his cronies are those with whom should not have been fucked with.
This man may be a singular example of what we can expect in the weeks to come as more companies use tactics Caligula would find repugnant.
May your fat crackle in the pits of hell for eternity, you son of a bitch.
Could be muckduck.
@easy2panic: It's widely known that "Bernie's Thing" was doing something to get those unreal rates. Those in on it thought that Bernie was ripping OTHER people off, rather than themselves.
Boy, THAT must suck.
This is totally a CSI episode. The perp is whoever they ruled out in the first 5 minutes.
I love that 7 BILLION dollars only puts you at number 371.
@Evil Otto - sleep deprived ftl: He was pretty old, with Parkinson's and a heart condition. It might, regrettably, be natural causes rather than evidence that 3,000 year old Harpies came up from Hades to wreck divine, hubris-slaying, flesh-ripping, eyes-gouging vengeance.
A better picture for the story would be the Nirvana album cover with the submerged baby chasing the dollar bill.
Symbolism!
@Skaperen: Maybe he could have done the smart thing and invested as much as he could in one house in Florida and then clung to that property. In Florida, it's damned near impossible to seize your house, even if it's the result of criminal enterprise.
@Xerloq says Can I has Friday?: I'd be content to be somewhere off the list but in a much better position, like number 1000 or so.
@easy2panic:I wish I could find the article again, but back in March or so I read a fascinating account of the relationship between Madoff's and Picower's operations.
The salient point the article made was that Picower's firm could and did dictate the rate of return they wanted from Madoff Securities on any given day. It was a total sweetheart relationship, as evidence by the billions sluiced off to Picower over many years. And while Picower benefited more than any of Madoff's other clients, it's highly unlikely that he was the only one that was in on the game.
@ExtraCelestial: Or he's faking his death to escape the legal system and is shacked up on some tiny island drinking millions in coconut rum.
The mistress ends up blowing his cover.
@Notsewfast: What did Terri Schiavo have that Jeffry Picower could have used?
Someone who would have pulled the plug.
Ok, that was tasteless. My bad.
@easy2panic: "Did he know Madoff was doing illegal things? Then yes, he should give the money back. If he did not know his money was being used illegally, he should keep the money. That is unfair, but if you want everyone to be equal, go to a communist country where everyone is equal(ly poor)."
Yes, he knew. But receiving stolen goods is illegal, even in capitalist nations.
@TheRedSeven:
I've seen too many previews of it, too. Unfortunately, none of them have made me want to see the movie.
With the right combination of chemicals or medication, I would imagine its not that hard.
Sounds like that suicide from up in new york where that one guy stabbed and shot himself three times in the back. I say there was no funny business here either, so no more investigating, capice?
@JGKojak: Or Pinochet who died before he could be convicted in a war crimes trial, and the same for Milosevic who died during his war crimes trial of a heart attack!
Don't hang on, nothing lasts forever but the earth and sky
It slips away, and all your money won't another minute buy.
better dead than poor? alrighty then. you go ahead with that.
@lincolnparadox: Pago Pago is in American Samoa so I'm not at all sure it'd be safe there. Probably more likely the Caymans.
Yeah I know, "Pago Pago" was just shorthand for "where the feds won't find it."
Seems like he was in a bit over his head.