Madoff bonanza(Picower widow forfeits $7B from Ponzi scheme)

NY Post ^ | 12/18/10 | KAJA WHITEHOUSE

[TigerLikesRooster]

Madoff bonanza

Picower widow forfeits $7B from Ponzi scheme

By KAJA WHITEHOUSE

Last Updated: 8:10 AM, December 18, 2010

Posted: 11:39 PM, December 17, 2010

The widow of late philanthropist Jeffry Picower, who made billions in phony profits investing with Ponzi king Bernie Madoff, agreed to return a staggering $7.2 billion to federal prosecutors in the largest recovery to date for victims of the massive fraud.

The huge windfall brings the total amount recovered since Madoff confessed to his crimes just two years ago to $9.8 billion -- nearly half the estimated $20 billion investors lost in the scheme.

[TigerLikesRooster]

P!

[Gadsden1st]

They lost half of their investment. Sorta like my 401K.

[April Lexington]

Another remarkable twist in a very twisted plot...

[devere]

The government had a very weak case against the Picower estate.
Barabara Picower’s action was almost entirely an act of charity.

[TigerLikesRooster]

Maybe she wants to live in peace. People would hound her with Madoff fortune thing for the rest of her life, if she did not cough it up.

[MrKatykelly]

10-4 on that. If they get 50% back they might end up better off than some 401Ks.

[Dr. Ursus]

The people that lost money and their lawyers are going to
descend on this like a fresh kill.

[MinuteGal]

Wow, I wonder what the total value of the estate is if $7 BILLION can be coughed up like it was a widow's mite.

Leni

[TigerLikesRooster]

In the process, nasty fight can break out, and those involved may be trading accusations of fraud against one another. This could make more people go to jail and join Madoff.:-)

[Liz]

Jeffry Picower took out profits totalling $7.2B----making the Florida "philanthropist" the biggest beneficiary of Madoff's $65B Ponzi scheme. As a savvy businessman and investor, Picower should have known 950% was an outlandish return.....when the stock market was returning 9%.

A lawyer representing 100 Madoff victims suggests it was no accident that Picower was one of the few Madoff customers who profited from the scheme. CBS' 60 Minutes reported that in Madoff's detailed notes, he revealed Jeffrey Picower---a major Planned Parenthood backer---was receiving a 950% return, indicating Picower was in on the scheme and profitied at the expense of others.

=====================================

REFERENCE The trustee ID'ing Madoff's assets unearthed a labyrinth of interrelated intl funds, institutions and entities of almost unparalleled complexity and breadth with assets and businesses in 11 places overseas. No question, tax evasion and money laundering was the name of the game for wealthy investors funneling income to Madoff. Wealthy businessmen posing as "philanthropists" hid hundreds of millions in annual income.

Some investors were suckered in to make the scheme look legit. The suckers helped payoff wealthy investors like Picower who made deals with Bernie. Wealthy deal makers like Picower got back more than they put in.

REFERENCE Madoff ran several scams simultaneously:
(1) a Ponzi fraud that made him and his family wealthy;
(2) laundering tax-free money for phony "charities,"
(3) IRS fraud facilitation for the wealthy;
(4) a protection racket (shielding investors from L/E);
(5) laundering tax-free money destined for big buck campaign contributions (campaign fraud).

Here's another "lucky" Madoff investor. Ira Rennert, Fifth Avenue Synagogue board chair, and Chairman of Yeshiva University Investment Committee, invested some $200 million w/ Madoff.

Rennert's Hamptons Mega Mansion, Sagaponack, NY. The complex rivals Versailles and Buckingham Palace. Rennert says he is Founder of Renco Group. This obscenely gargantuan mansion, dubbed Fairfield, is reportedly the largest occupied residential compound in America Square Feet: 66,000 / 110,000 (including outbuildings). It is situated on 63 prime acres and houses 29 bedrooms and 39 bathrooms. It also has a dining room that stretches 90 feet long, a bowling alley, two tennis courts, a squash court, a 164 seat movie theater, and a 200 car garage. This home also contains a rather rare item; its own power plant. Fairfield is currently valued at more than $185 illion. Hamptonites complain this astoundingly palatial mega-mansion in the posh Hamptons is actually a "synagogue-residence-yeshiva" for Orthodox Judaism students.

[Dr. Ursus]

I think the feeder fund people still get screwed,but I’m
not sure.

[Liz]

January 12, 2009
National Planned Parenthood Fires 20 Percent of Staff After Madoff Scandal
Life News ^ | 1/12/09 | Steven Ertelt
FR Posted on Monday, January 12, 2009 by wagglebee

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- The Madoff fundraising scandal has had some beneficial fallout for the pro-life movement. Combined with the current economic downturn, the Planned Parenthood Federation of America is feeling the pinch and has laid off 20 percent of its staff. The nation's largest abortion business, which does 25 percent of all abortions in the United States annually, laid off about 30 people this week.

Executives at Planned Parenthood confirmed the layoffs in an interview with the Crain's New York business publication. “As with many other nonprofit organizations, Planned Parenthood has had to make staff reductions at our headquarters due to the challenging economic times facing our country,” Planned Parenthood chief operating officer Maryana Iskander said.

“While taking this action is never easy, we want to ensure the millions of women and men who rely on Planned Parenthood as a health care provider that the reductions will not impact our ability to deliver care to those in need," Iskander added. What Iskander didn't discuss is the effect of the Madoff scandal on Planned Parenthood's income.

REFERENCE The Florida-based Picower Foundation, which gave substantial donations to the abortion business, shut down in December because Bernard Madoff had mismanaged its assets. The foundation was worth $1 billion and one of the top financial backers of pro-abortion groups. The charity has given away more than $189 million since 1999 and a sizable chunk of the money went to abortion advocates, including $3.2 million to NARAL, $2.5 million for the Center for Reproductive Rights, $2.4 million for Planned Parenthood, and $625,000 for the Center for Reproductive Law and Policy, according to the American Spectator.

The JEHT Foundation, which gave away $24 million last year to groups, including pro-abortion organizations, also announced in December that it would be shutting its doors. JEHT gave $1.7 million to the ACLU and its foundation and $4.2 million to the Tides Foundation, which heavily funds pro-abortion groups. News of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America laying off staff comes on the heels of one of its affiliates doing so. Planned Parenthood of Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota said in December that hard economic times forced it to lay off 10 employees covering nine and a half positions including its South Dakota director, Kate Looby, who has overseen the lone South Dakota abortion business, run by Planned Parenthood in Sioux Falls, since 2003, confirmed she would be fired form her position.

SOURCE http://www.lifenews.com/state3682.html

=======================================

Let's hope this means PP also gets tossed out of schools where they proselytize kids----K-12----- into the pro-killing mentality........and into the PP Rubber Cult of recreational sex. The money-hungry PP elites get federal, state and local tax dollars to keep up the killing. NOTE Pro-lifers use their own money to save the unborn.

Barbara Picower started the Picower Foundation with her husband, investor Jeffry Picower, in 1989

The Picower Foundation
1410 South Ocean Blvd
Palm Beach, Fla 33480
Tele 561-835-1332
Geographic Focus: Florida; New York; http://www.tgci.com/funding/fdnresultnew.asp?thisID=19499

The Florida-based Picower Foundation worth $1 billion was one of the top financial backers of the abortion industry. The foundation will shut down December because of investing with Ponzi crook Bernard Madoff. The "charity" has given away more than $189 million since 1999 and a sizable chunk of the money went to abortion advocates, including $3.2 million to NARAL, $2.5 million for the Center for Reproductive Rights, $2.4 million for Planned Parenthood, and $625,000 for the Center for Reproductive Law and Policy, according to reporting by the American Spectator.

[Vermont Lt]

Everyone should give back their “profits.” They should be distributed, proportionately to all of the “investors.”

I am not sure I feel a lot of sympathy for any of them.

Getting returns like that really had to smell. But I guess that is the smell of greed.

You pays your money. You takes your chances.

[TheVitaminPress]

The huge windfall brings the total amount recovered since Madoff confessed to his crimes just two years ago to $9.8 billion -- nearly half the estimated $20 billion investors lost in the scheme. Yawn. Wake me up when somebody does something about social security. That is the only ponzi scheme I care about right now.

[Focault's Pendulum]

Eventually, all the money will go to Madoff's victims

...and the key word is?

[B4Ranch]

Picower foundation, which closed because of Madoff scandal, gave heavily to Jewish causes.

By Jacob Berkman · December 21, 2008

The Picower Foundation, based in Palm Beach, Fla., is the largest yet to close in the wake of the Bernard Madoff scandal.

Started by Barbara Picower and her husband, investor Jeffry Picower, the foundation — which in 2002 gave $50 million to start a brain research center — had almost all of its assets invested with Madoff, according to the New York Times.

The foundation, which is listed as the 71st largest in the nation by the Council on Foundations, had $552,046,532 in charitable assets in 2007, according to its latest 990 tax filing.

[nkycincinnatikid]

To bad you don’t fit the right “victim” profile to have the system recovering your losses.
You should have invested in an obvious Ponzi scheme obstensibly guaranteed to reward the financial class.

[ken5050]

FYI..other news reports today state that the family and family trusts/charities STILL have assets worth over $ THREE BILLION. Something doesn't quite smell right here..

[freefdny]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/25/jeffry-picower-dead-madof_n_333171.html

Jeff found dead at the bottom of the pool last year is also pretty interesting.