PALM BEACH, FL -- An autopsy will determine the exact cause of death of billionaire Jeffry Picower, who was discovered at the bottom of his backyard swimming pool Sunday. Palm Beach Police plan to hold a briefing today and could release the results at that time.
Medics who responded to Jeffry Picower's Palm Beach estate were slightly delayed getting through the gate because of security code difficulties.
Two people, described as Picower’s wife and housekeeper, said they had left him near the pool to go back in the house.
They came back outside to find him at the bottom of the pool. They had pulled him out by the time fire rescue got to the scene.
"They said there was 15 minutes between time he went swimming and the time he had gone to the bottom of the pool,” said Palm Beach Fire Chief Don Taylor.
Jeffry Picower, 67, is widely know for philanthropic generosity had been living under a cloud of the Bernie Madoff scandal; most recently facing a lawsuit filed by the trustee in charge of getting back money stolen by Madoff.
Trustee Irving Picard charged Picower and his wife reaped $7 billion from investments with Madoff as players in the Ponzi scheme.
Between December 1995 and December 2008, Picower and his family withdrew from their various Madoff accounts $5.1 billion more than they invested with the self-confessed swindler, according to a lawsuit filed by the trustee.
Financial expert John Pickett says Picower got a jaw dropping return on his investment with Madoff.
“He achieved with Madoff outsized return of 950 to 800 percent. The interesting thing... should he have known that something like that was not possible that was the key question,” said Pickett.
But Picower’s lawyer maintains, "They were totally shocked by his fraud and were in no way complicit in it," he said. "They lost billions of personal assets and most dear to them, all the assets of their esteemed foundation."
Picower's death further clouds the effort to return money to Madoff victims and leaves lingering question about how much he know.
“You look at the return he was getting and you have a lot of people speculating if there was outside knowledge people were looking to him for a possible confirmation, knowing more than he was letting on with his death that sort of dies with him," said Pickett.
