Picower wasnt new to philanthropy when she started JPB. "[24], In June 2009, Irving Picard, the trustee liquidating Madoff's assets, filed a lawsuit against Picower in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York (Manhattan), seeking the return of $7.2 billion in profits, alleging that Picower and his wife Barbara knew or should have known that their rates of return were "implausibly high", with some accounts showing annual returns ranging from 120% to more than 550% from 1996 through 1998, and 950% in 1999. Support. [11] The Picowers' lawyer, William D. Zabel of Schulte Roth & Zabel, responded that, "They were totally shocked by his fraud and were in no way complicit in it. Irving Picard, the trustee of Madoffs bogus investment firm, sued Jeffry Picower in 2009 to retrieve the $7.2 billion in distributions he received from Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities, saying that Jeffry Picower knew or should have known he was profiting from a massive fraud. "[19][20], The Jeffry M. and Barbara Picower Foundation was created in 1989 by Picower and his wife Barbara. The JPB Foundation had $1.1 billion in assets as of the end of 2012, tax records show. Generating public will. [16], Alaris Medical Systems, 65% owned by Picower, was taken over by Cardinal Health in 2004 for $1.6 billion. But she really thrives on relationships. Toward this end, The JPB Foundation directs its giving to three program areas promoting opportunities for people in poverty, advancing medical research, and enabling a healthy environmentin which, through sustained focus over time, it can make a significant difference. As a result, Barbara Picower stopped making big grants out of the Picower Foundation, the charitable organization she ran that had $958 million in assets on the eve of the Madoff scams collapse, less than the new foundation she is currently operating. Some Madoff investors are continuing to go after her in court, recently filing a lawsuit against Picower in federal court in Florida, claiming that Jeffry Picower controlled the Madoff Ponzi scheme and is responsible for all the $18 billion or so of losses associated with it. Nonprofit leaders had the SuperMajority idea and then funders like JPB came in with financial support. I would love to see more of that among foundations., Betsy Krebs said that, all told, JPB is involved in more than 15 funder collaboratives. Picower, a tax shelter lawyer and accountant, was not well known in financial circles until his name surfaced in the Madoff case in the past few months. In a statement made public together with Picower's will, Barbara Picower said. We view work that supports the grassroots to be one of the best levers for building a just and equitable society, so much so that strengthening the field of environmental justice is now a fourth area of the environmental program.. "[27], On October 25, 2009, Jeffry Picower died at his Palm Beach home. [3] [4] He was the largest beneficiary of Madoff's Ponzi scheme, and his widow agreed to have his estate settle the claims against it by Madoff trustee Irving Picard for $7.2 billion, the largest . Picowers new foundation has since doubled in size, according to a person familiar with its activities, and currently has more than $2 billion of assets. The only other funder I know who so wholeheartedly seeks co-investing is Laurene Powell Jobs., Carol Larson, president and CEO of the Packard Foundation, shares Walkers appreciation for Picowers approach. Barbara Picower runs one of the largest foundations in the U.S. Barbara is the President and Board Chair of the JPB Foundation. The person said Picower's estate would pay $5 billion to settle the civil lawsuit brought by Picard and other $2.2 billion to resolve a civil forfeiture claim by federal prosecutors investigating. Federal prosecutors in Manhattan came to believe that the $7.2 billion represented the proceeds of specified unlawful activity or a conspiracy to commit such an offense. The U.S. Attorney in Manhattan, Preet Bharara, filed a civil forfeiture complaint against the money in December at the same time that the government announced that Barbara Picower had agreed to turn over all of the money as part of the largest single forfeiture recovery in U.S. history. The feds said the settlement contained no finding or admission of fault and that Barbara Picower was doing the right thing, but at a press conference Bharara declined to exonerate Jeffry Picower, calling the issue a moot point given that he was no longer alive. Gerald McNamara, a former Goldman Sachs managing director who was a trustee of The Picower Foundation when it was investing with Madoff, is chief investment officer of The JPB Foundation. Picower was one of the . Thank you, David Horovitz, Founding Editor of The Times of Israel, 2023 The Times of Israel , All Rights Reserved, Former financier Bernard Madoff exits Federal Court in Manhattan, New York on March 10, 2009. Medical examiner Dr. Michael Bell told ABC News that the cause of death was a massive heart attack, which lead to drowning. In its first several years, JPB established its three core Programs - Poverty, Environment, and Medical Research. Madoff Associate and Penn State Grad Dies. Unlike other news outlets, we havent put up a paywall. [25][26] According to a June 28, 2009, MSNBC article, that would make Picower and his wife the biggest beneficiaries of Madoff's scam, exceeding even Madoff himself. It really forced us to think and plan differently. According to InfluenceWatch, in 2020, the JPB Foundation held over $3 billion in assets. They recognize that civic engagement is essential to fixing poverty and the environment. The foundation's assets were managed by his longtime friend, Bernard Madoff. [9][32] "Barbara Picower has done the right thing," US Attorney Preet Bharara said. [31], In 2011, Barbara Picower resumed her philanthropic activities, setting up a new foundation called the JPB Foundation with assets that remained from Jeffry Picower's estate following the legal settlement. Barbara Picower appears to have resumed supporting some of the nations top brain researchers by building consortiums of scientists who agree to collaborate together on their research. [30], On December 17, 2010, it was announced that a settlement of $7.2 billion had been reached between Irving Picard and Barbara Picower, Picower's widow, the executor of the Picower estate, to resolve the Madoff trustee suit, and repay losses in the Madoff fraud. "He made 30 times what Madoff did from the scam and about a third of the missing money went to Picower," said one of the investigators on the case Sunday. When Jeffry M. Picower was born on 5 May 1942, in New York, United States, his father, Abraham Picower, was 34 and his mother, Gertrude, was 33. The affordable housing market hadnt been a strong focus for NRDC. It also appears to have so far prevented Jeffry Picowers estate from fully endowing The JPB Foundation, meaning hundreds of millions of dollars more could flow to the foundation in the future. The Palm Beach County Medical Examiner's Office determined that Mr. Picower suffered a massive heart attack while in the swimming pool resulting in accidental drowning. Barbara Picower President, The JPB Foundation Barbara Picower is the President and Chair of the Board of Directors of The JPB Foundation, a charitable institution founded in 2011 from the proceeds of the estate of her late husband, Jeffry M. Picower. [5][6][7][8][9], Picower was born in the Bronx, New York. Barbara Picower had agreed in a civil settlement in December to turn over this massive amount of money, but other Madoff investors who had been deemed ineligible to share in the prize had appealed a judges decision to approve the settlement, which barred them from getting a chance to sue Barbara Picower themselves. The Picower Foundation was forced to close in 2009 after the Madoff scandal broke out. A month after his death, on November 25, 2009, lawyers for Barbara Picower filed a legal brief arguing that Picard had no right to claim $7.2 billion from Jeffry Picowers estate by avoiding transfers going back more than 25 years, based on nothing but the conclusory claim that someone exists who could not have discovered Madoffs fraud.. While the poverty and environmental program areas have many overlaps, the foundations medical research program is considered separate and discrete, but no less important in Picowers far-reaching personal engagement. Part of Picards filing said: Based upon the trustees investigation to date, Picower was the biggest beneficiary of Madoffs scheme, having withdrawn either directly or through the entities he controlled more than $7.2 billion of other investors money.. But JPB is an example of encouraging, not forcing, collaboration. After about two minutes on the phone the operator asks for Mrs. Picower, but there is no answer. Jeffry M. Picower (May 5, 1942 - October 25, 2009) [1] [2] was an American investor involved in the Madoff investment scandal. Of course, grantees say nice things because she has so much power over them, but make no mistake, she is the queen and everyone knows she acts like one, that person said. As we often report, other major philanthropists entering the anti-poverty space, like Steve and Connie Ballmer, have stayed away from organizations that take a more confrontational approach to advocacy. Click the link in that email to complete registration so you can comment. It takes just a few seconds. Annual. A consistent theme across all of JPBs program areas is providing similarly motivated actors pursuing different strategies with the resources, time and space they need to collaborate, network and draw upon each others strengths. The $200 million for Picowers wife, Barbara, is spelled out in the will he left before he died of a heart attack on October 25, in the swimming pool at his home in Palm Beach, Florida. She started talking to Cecile Richards. Listed previously at $1 billion, the foundation's assets were managed by Bernard L. Madoff, Mrs. Picower said in a statement, and his "act of fraud has had a devastating impact on tens of . Forbes staff writer Nathan Vardi wrote, In fact, the new JPB Foundation looks very much like the old Picower empire. Get to know Barbara. This is the advice from grantees and fellow funders alike to anyone seeking to engage the foundation. We want you to succeed and we will do whatever we can to help you succeed. The foundations vast wealth derives from a fortune associated with the Bernie Madoff scandal, which exemplified all the worst elements of capitalist greed, but JPBs focus is on long-term, systemic approaches to economic and environmental justice that are rooted in the priorities of community leaders closest to the issues. Investigators told ABC News that Picower would also have likely faced criminal charges. Barbara Picower, widow of investor Jeffry M. Picower. The Trust for Public Land honored Barbara Picower, President of The JPB Foundation, at its 2018 Gala hosted by Eva and Alexander Durst of the Durst Organization and Dan and Sheryl Tishman of the Dan and Sheryl Tishman Family Foundation Wednesday, November 14 in Manhattan. Some of the organizations Barbara has given the most massive amounts of money to are, unfortunately, disjointed as a result, the former staffer said. In less than a decade, JPB has carved out a unique role for itself in two grantmaking fields, poverty and the environment, that are crowded with other funders. On Friday the astonishing news broke that the estate of Jeffrey M. Picower had agreed to cough up $7.2 billion to the liquidator of the Bernard Madoff fraud and the Federal Government. In a dramatic shift from a few decades ago, living donors oversee a growing number of the biggest grantmaking institutions in the U.S.although, as Picower rightly notes, few are as involved in the day-to-day work as she is. November 1, 2009. The figure is the. Market Realist is a registered trademark. However, in 2011, Barbara Picower launched the JPB Foundation using funds that were left from her late husband's estate. Barbara has been passionate about womens equality for a long time, and poverty, and has been funding NDWA for years. Photo: Johnny Silvercloud/shutterstock. "Today's truly historic settlement with the estate of Jeffry Picower is a game-changer for Madoff's victims," said Preet Bharara, the United States attorney in Manhattan.. The fund is housed at Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors and has commitments from JPB, Ford, Packard, Schusterman and an anonymous donor, each giving $10 million a year over five years. October 29, 2009. The facility, located on Vassar Street near Main Street on the northeast corner of the MIT campus, is made possible with the help of a $50 million gift from the Picower Foundation of Palm Beach, Fla., a private foundation created by Barbara and Jeffry M. Picower. Residential Address: Palm Beach, Fl. Federal prosecutors reached the settlement with the estate of Jeffry Picower, a businessman who drowned after suffering a heart attack in the swimming pool of his Palm Beach, Fla., mansion in. 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. Field Strengthening. 1 Baths. The environment program started with a directive to not fund large federal climate initiatives and instead to focus on community-based environmental interventions, said Dana Bourland, who leads this part of the foundations work. She has a few funders with which she works in partnership frequently, including the Ford, Packard, Hewlett and Schusterman Foundations. September 10, 2014. Their [JPBs] strategy is to empower others to set the agenda and lead., The funding commitment of five years to SuperMajority is also reflective of Picower and JPBs long-term approach. A previous grantmaking entity that she ran with her husband, the Picower Foundation, at one time had $1 billion in Madoff-managed assets before it was forced to shut down in 2008.