Defend Truth

Madoff’s friend found dead in his pool

Jeffry M Picower, for years best known as an insanely rich Wall Street investor and philanthropist, as well as being a friend of Bernie Madoff's, was found dead on Sunday night in his ocean-front mansion's pool. Originally it was treated with suspicion, (friends of Madoff's do not have many friends), but the autopsy proved it was just a plain old heart attack. And Picower did have a few too many problems to worry about. His friendship with the owner of the biggest Ponzi scheme ever netted him about $7 billion. Although he was initially seen as one of many victims, the subsequent investigation showed he benefited wildly from the scheme, with one of his accounts being overdrawn a staggering $6 billion. Lawsuits accused him of not realising something was amiss with all the large and stable profits that Madoff was paying him - an accusation that would have probably been difficult to prove beyond a reasonable doubt, had he lived to take the stand, of course.Read more: New York Times, BusinessWeek

Gallery

Please peer review 3 community comments before your comment can be posted

MavericKids vol 3

How can a child learn to read if they don't have a book?

81% of South African children aged 10 can't read for meaning. You can help by pre-ordering a copy of MavericKids.

For every copy sold we will donate a copy to Gift of The Givers for children in need of reading support.

A South African Hero: You

There’s a 99.8% chance that this isn’t for you. Only 0.2% of our readers have responded to this call for action.

Those 0.2% of our readers are our hidden heroes, who are fuelling our work and impacting the lives of every South African in doing so. They’re the people who contribute to keep Daily Maverick free for all, including you.

The equation is quite simple: the more members we have, the more reporting and investigations we can do, and the greater the impact on the country.

Be part of that 0.2%. Be a Maverick. Be a Maverick Insider.

Support Daily Maverick→
Payment options