$7.2 billion settlement in case against Madoff’s mystery man

The estate of Jeffry Picower, who was the biggest beneficiary of the Madoff Ponzi scheme, will pay $7.2 billion in a settlement being announced by federal prosecutors on Friday, Forbes magazine reported.

It is the richest victory thus far for Irving Picard, the court-appointed trustee charged with recovering funds for defrauded Madoff investors.
Picower was a major target of Picard’s efforts and the settlement is a huge win for him, though it looks like Picard needed the help of federal prosecutors to achieve such a big number. Picower pocketed $7.2 billion from the Madoff Ponzi scheme before he died last year, drowning in his pool, as one of the richest men in America. According to court documents, Picower deposited $619 million since he started investing with Madoff in the late 1970s, but eventually withdrew $7.8 billion from the fund.

The settlement, reached with his widow and childhood sweetheart Barbara on December 17, will probably leave her with the $200 million her late husband left her in his will. Picower’s estate will also probably have plenty of money left over to fund a new charitable foundation that Picower, who was a huge philanthropist and gave liberally to brain and Parkinson’s research, established in his will, which he changed just 10 days before his death.

The bulk of what’s left in Picower’s estate–everything in excess of the $7.2 billion settlement and $250 million of bequests–is slated for the new and as yet unnamed tax-exempt foundation that is supposed to allocate half of the funds for medical research and the rest for charitable purposes. It appears that Barbara, 67, will resume her life as a philanthropic heavyweight as chairwoman.