Authorities say Jeffry Picower, a Florida philanthropist and Bernard Madoff friend, has died

Palm Beach police: Jeffry Picower has died

PALM BEACH, Fla. — Palm Beach police said Sunday that Jeffry Picower, a Florida philanthropist and a friend of Bernard Madoff for decades, has died. He was 67.

Picower was the former New York lawyer and accountant alleged to have extracted billions of dollars from the Bernard Madoff investment scheme.

In a statement, the Palm Beach Police Department said Picower was found at the bottom of his Palm Beach home’s pool Sunday afternoon by his wife and could not be revived by Palm Beach fire rescue workers. Picower was transported to Good Samaritan Medical Center where he was pronounced dead at about 1:30 p.m.

The police department said it is conducting an investigation into Mr. Picower’s death, as is standard operating procedure in any drowning. The residence has been secured and detectives remain on the scene at this time.

An operator at Good Samaritan said the hospital wouldn’t be making any statements.

In the initial aftermath of the Madoff scandal in December 2008, the foundation Picower and his wife started in 1989 said it would have to cease grant-making and would be forced to close. The Picower Foundation had given millions to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Human Rights First and the New York Public Library. It also funded diabetes research at Harvard Medical School. The foundation, whose assets were managed by Madoff, said in its 2007 tax return its investment portfolio was valued at nearly $1 billion.

But Picower was later sued by the trustee recovering Bernard Madoff’s assets for jilted investors. Irving Picard labeled the Florida philanthropist as the biggest beneficiary of Madoff’s multibillion-dollar fraud and demanded he return more than $7 billion in bogus profits.

In court filings, Picard’s lawyers have said Picower’s claims that he was a victim “ring hollow” since Picower withdrew more of other investors’ money than anyone else during three decades of investing with Madoff and should have noticed signs of fraud.

According to the lawyers, Picower’s accounts were “riddled with blatant and obvious fraud,” and he should have recognized that since he was a sophisticated investor.

Picower had asked that the lawsuit be dismissed, saying it is unsupported by the facts. Messages left for Picower’s lawyer, William Zabel, and his wife’s attorney, Marcy Harris, weren’t immediately returned Sunday.

Madoff is serving a 150-year prison sentence after he admitted losing billions of dollars for thousands of clients over a half-century career that saw him rise to be a Nasdaq chairman.