Jeffry M. Picower (May 5, 1942– October 25, 2009) was an American investor and noted philanthropist involved in the Madoff investment scandal.
Jeffry Picower was a certified public accountant and lawyer. However, he appears to have made most of his sizable fortune by investing. According to the Jewish newspaper The Forward, Picower was a donor to many Jewish charities during his career, giving away over 2 million dollars during 2007 alone.
As an accountant at Laventhol & Horwath in the 1980s, Jeffry 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 quietly settled out of court.
In 1983, Jeffry Picower was rebuked by the Securities and Exchange Commission for late disclosure of his greater than 5% position in a company involved in a merger.
In 1991, Jeffry Picower and Anthony Cerami established a charity, the Picower Institute for Medical Research, at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset, New York, with an initial endowment of $10 million. Researchers 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.
Jeffry Picower has been listed by Forbes magazine as one of the top 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."
On October 25, 2009, Jeffry Picower was found at the bottom of the pool of his Palm Beach home and could not be revived. Picower's wife, Barbara, told dispatchers she found him "at the bottom of their swimming pool" at their oceanfront estate shortly after noon, Palm Beach police said. He was taken to Good Samaritan Hospital, where he was pronounced dead about 80 minutes later.
According to the Palm Beach Police Department, "An autopsy of the body of Jeffry M. Picower was performed this morning. 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."
Jeffry Picower was buried on October 27, 2009, in Mount Ararat Cemetery in Farmingdale, New York.
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