Picower's estate to help Madoff victims

NEW YORK, Nov. 10 (UPI) -- The death of Jeffrey Picower, an investor with disgraced financier Bernard Madoff, may mean several billion more dollars for Madoff's victims, attorneys say.

Picower, who died last month in his Palm Beach, Fla., swimming pool, left an estate worth more than $1 billion and attorneys for victims of Madoff's massive Ponzi scheme say Picower's estate should go to compensate them, The New York Times reported.

The newspaper said Picower's will -- expected to be filed Tuesday -- leaves most of his money to charity, but is large enough for both charitable contributions as well as restitution for Madoff victims.

Picower attorney William Zabel refused to comment to the Times about settlement talks with Irving Picard, the trustee for the Madoff victims. But he did say figures under discussion range from $2.4 billion to $7 billion -- enough to least double the amount of restitution that Picard has been able to gather so far.