Who murdered Picower?

We know that Jeffrey Picower has a scandalous past.  And we also know that when Madoff went bust, Picower quietly and very quickly closed the Picower Foundation.

Too some it was too quickly.  Back in February ABC News thought that Picower and Levy were the funnels for Madoff's billions.

But then we found out that Picower had taken $5.1 billion over and above his investment. Now that figure has increased upwards by another two billion to $7.2 billion. Here were some of his annual withdrawals.

1995 3 $50,240,000
1996 84 $390,751,188
1997 68 $420,959,554
1998 59 $506,065,516
1999 57 $590,835,236
2000 61 $658,061,313
2001 64 $821,000,950
2002 52 $922,221,107
2003 52 $1,025,301,463
2004 44 $480,151,300
2005 40 $468,316,059
2006 37 $165,025,910
2007 35 $216,450,976
2008 14 $30,685,976

670 wires out of Madoff, averaging $100 million each, and no bank has any culpability? $6.746 billion wired out? And all we have on Picower is a lawsuit from the Fed's?

He dies today in a swimming pool. 81 minutes after the 911 call, he was pronounced dead.

Somebody wanted to keep him quiet.

Because we heard, that last week, for the sake of expediency, his lawyers were trying to work out a settlement to put these issues behind him.

And that reminds me of this old joke. But instead of $3 million, it's $6 billion!

The Godfather, accompanied by his accountant, walks into a room to meet with his underboss. The Godfather asks the underboss, "where's the three million bucks you embezzled from me?" The underboss doesn't answer. The Godfather asks again, "where's the three million bucks you embezzled from me?"

The accountant interrupts, "sir, the man is a deaf-mute and cannot understand you, but I can interpret for you."

The Godfather says, "well, ask him where the @#!* money is." The accountant, using sign language, asks the underboss where the three million dollars is. The underboss signs back, "I don't know what you're talking about." The accountant interprets to the Godfather, " He doesn't know what you're talking about "

The Godfather pulls out a pistol, puts it to the temple of the underboss, cocks the trigger and says, "Ask him again where the @#!* money is!"

The accountant signs to the underboss, "He wants to know where it is!" The underboss signs back, "Okay! Okay! The money's hidden in a suitcase behind the shed in my backyard!" The Godfather says, "Well, what did he say?"

The accountant interprets to the Godfather, "He says that you don't have the guts to pull the trigger."

This time, they used the swimming pool.  (It's the middle house.)

And his foundation, had an unusual way of pricing stocks. On December  26, 2000, on the day after Christmas, they bought 60,003 shares of AIG at $2.41. (page 27). That was a neat trick--the stock was 25X the price.

It's easy to make money, when you make up prices!
Picower Foundation -- 2006 Tax Return