Jeffry Picower, a prominent philanthropist and one of the largest investors in the vast Ponzi scheme run by Bernard L. Madofft and the creator of the Picower Foundation was found dead in the pool at his Palm Beach, Fla., home on Sunday afternoon. This is a very sticky kinda moral dilemma that makes me want to cry..I’ve been on an anti Madoff tirade for 5 months and now I find that one of the greatest beneficiaries of the stolen doe happens to be the greatest Robin Hood in history??..Wow ..Holy Crazy Moral dilemma.. The foundation that Picower created finances medical research at many leading institutions, human rights and child advocacy programs, and arts and cultural operations. This takes take from the rich give to the poor to another level..Hero or Villain ...Anybody got a take on this one?

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/26/business/26madoff.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss

Investor With Madoff Is Found Dead in His Pool

 
 

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By DIANA B. HENRIQUES
Published: October 25, 2009

Jeffry Picower, a prominent philanthropist and one of the largest investors in the vast Ponzi scheme run by Bernard L. Madoff, was found dead in the pool at his Palm Beach, Fla., home on Sunday afternoon.

His death was confirmed by the Palm Beach Police Department, which said it had received an emergency call at 12:09 p.m. from Mr. Picower’s wife, Barbara. She said that she had found her husband at the bottom of the pool. Mr. Picower, 67, could not be revived at his home and was pronounced dead at 1:30 p.m. at a nearby hospital, according to the police.

William D. Zabel, a lawyer for the Picower family, said he understood that Mr. Picower had experienced “cardiac issues” in the past, and had Parkinson’s disease. “This is a personal tragedy, and the family is grieving,” Mr. Zabel said. “It will be making no further statement.”

The police department in Palm Beach said in a statement that it had opened an investigation into Mr. Picower’s death, a routine step in all drowning cases. As a result, the Picower home in Palm Beach “has been secured and detectives remain on the scene at this time,” the department reported on Sunday evening.

Mr. Picower, a longtime investor with Mr. Madoff, was sued this year by the trustee liquidating the Madoff estate. In that civil case, the trustee asserted that the Picowers had withdrawn at least $6 billion more from their Madoff accounts over the years than they had invested. The lawsuit was aimed at recovering as much of that money as possible to share with victims of the Ponzi scheme. Mr. Madoff has begun serving a 150-year sentence in federal prison after pleading guilty to the fraud.

According to Mr. Zabel, settlement discussions with the trustee were under way “and progress was being made” when he last spoke with Mr. Picower on Friday.

Sometimes things are not as they are portrayed.  I would need to see the actual records of his “philanthropic” endeavors. 

Coming from the brouhaha of Public Access (URTV), and it’s dug in attitude of hiding records, I’ve become very sceptical of these “non-profits.”  If they don’t have to answer to anyone…it is a license to steal. JMHO

Ya don’t hear to much about this guy anymore..But I do smell a movie of the week in the works,,.

They should let Keats write it..give a little class..

Poetry of John Keats (1795-1821)

Robin Hood

TO A FRIEND

No! those days are gone away
And their hours are old and gray,
And their minutes buried all
Under the down-trodden pall
Of the leaves of many years:
Many times have winter’s shears,
Frozen North, and chilling East,
Sounded tempests to the feast
Of the forest’s whispering fleeces,
Since men knew nor rent nor leases.

  No, the bugle sounds no more,
And the twanging bow no more;
Silent is the ivory shrill
Past the heath and up the hill;
There is no mid-forest laugh,
Where lone Echo gives the half
To some wight, amaz’d to hear
Jesting, deep in forest drear.

  On the fairest time of June
You may go, with sun or moon,
Or the seven stars to light you,
Or the polar ray to right you;
But you never may behold
Little John, or Robin bold;
Never one, of all the clan,
Thrumming on an empty can
Some old hunting ditty, while
He doth his green way beguile
To fair hostess Merriment,
Down beside the pasture Trent;
For he left the merry tale
Messenger for spicy ale.

  Gone, the merry morris din;
Gone, the song of Gamelyn;
Gone, the tough-belted outlaw
Idling in the “grenè shawe”;
All are gone away and past!
And if Robin should be cast
Sudden from his turfed grave,
And if Marian should have
Once again her forest days,
She would weep, and he would craze:
He would swear, for all his oaks,
Fall’n beneath the dockyard strokes,
Have rotted on the briny seas;
She would weep that her wild bees
Sang not to her—strange! that honey
Can’t be got without hard money!

He’s no Robin Hood. He took a lot of other people’s money and gave SOME to a non-profit foundation, probably so he wouldn’t have to pay taxes on it and so he would be in a position of influence. He took from everybody—not just the rich, but a lot of middle class folks as well—and kept most of it.

He basically took real money from real people and illegally funded his own personal pet project, helping to bankrupt thousands of people in the process. It’s not like he was living a life of poverty, dedicated to making the world a better place. He was just another rich guy trying to keep from paying taxes by starting a foundation where he could help the projects he personally liked (assuming he set up the board as well as the company). It’s not like we’re talking about Mother Teresa here.

And it wasn’t even REALLY his money. So, he’s a few rungs down from Bill and Melinda Gates, to say the least.

I hear ya Steve..this guy most likely was a stealing sack of shit..and kept most that money for his evil purposes..  the thread below discusses how the government is taking from the poor and giving to the rich…a weird variation on the Robin Hood mythology..

http://www.mountainx.com/forums/viewthread/2504/