Madoff figure Picower dies, found in pool

PALM BEACH, Fla., Oct. 25 (UPI) -- Jeffry Picower, accused in a lawsuit of benefiting from Bernard Madoff's Ponzi scheme, was found dead Sunday in his Florida swimming pool, officials said.

Don Taylor, acting battalion chief of Palm Beach (Fla.) Fire Rescue told The Palm Beach Post rescue workers responding to a call from the 67-year-old Florida billionaire's home arrived to find his wife Barbara and a housekeeper had already pulled his body from the pool. Taylor said paramedics tried for 20 minutes to revive the former New York attorney and accountant.

"We had no pulse and he was not breathing on his own," Taylor said. "We worked on him to try and stabilize him as best we could."

Palm Beach police issued a statement saying Picower was pronounced dead at 1:30 p.m. Good Samaritan Medical Center spokeswoman Denise Moore said no cause of death had been determined Sunday afternoon but the newspaper said police were investigating it as a drowning.

The Picowers and their Picower Foundation are among the defendants named in a lawsuit brought by the trustee liquidating Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities. The suit claims Jeffry Picower collected more than $5 billion from Madoff's investor fraud scheme during a period of more than 20 years, the Post said.