Picower Foundation
| Jeffry Picower | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Jeffry M. Picower May 5, 1942 |
| Died | October 25, 2009 (aged 67) Palm Beach, Florida, U.S. |
| Occupation | Investor, lawyer |
| Spouse(s) | Barbara Picower |
Jeffry M. Picower (May 5, 1942 – October 25, 2009) was an American investor involved in the Madoff investment scandal. He appears to have been the largest beneficiary of Madoff's Ponzi scheme, and his estate settled the claims against it for $7.2 billion.
Picower was a certified public accountant and lawyer, but made most of his fortune by investing with Madoff.
As an accountant at Laventhol & Horwath in the 1980s, Picower set up questionable tax shelters. When the IRS challenged their validity, one of Picower's clients sued him and the firm. The case was settled out of court.
In 1983, Picower was rebuked by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for late disclosure of his greater than 5% position in a company involved in a merger.
In 1991, Picower and Anthony Cerami established a charity, the Picower Institute for Medical Research, with an initial endowment of $10 million. Researchers there, led by Kevin J. Tracey, made a potentially valuable discovery, with possible applications in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn's disease, and multiple sclerosis. It was spun off into a for-profit company, Cytokine Networks, which was later merged with privately held PharmaSciences to form Cytokine PharmaSciences. However, it was revealed that Picower owned 76% of PharmaSciences stock and actually controlled 86.2%, putting him in a conflict of interest in the merger negotiations.
After Physician Computer Network, Inc., went bankrupt, Picower, the chairman of the board and 45% shareholder, had to give $21 million to other shareholders in 2000 after it was discovered that company executives had falsified financial statements.
Alaris Medical Systems, 65% owned by Picower, was taken over by Cardinal Health in 2004 for $1.6 billion.
Picower was listed by Forbes magazine as one of the 400 richest people in the United States for 2009, his only time on the list. Forbes, which listed Picower at no. 371, placed his net worth at $1 billion, although the magazine acknowledged that the former lawyer and accountant is "likely worth billions more."
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Wikipedia