Madoff colleague Picower found dead

BREAKING NEWS: Madoff colleague Picower found dead at his Palm Beach home

By KIMBERLY MILLER

Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Sunday, October 25, 2009

PALM BEACH — Palm Beach billionaire Jeffry Picower, who was found at the bottom of his South Ocean Boulevard pool Sunday afternoon, has died, according to a spokeswoman at Good Samaritan Medical Center and Palm Beach police.

Picower could not be revived by paramedics, who worked unsuccessfully for 20 minutes at the scene to get a pulse.

Don Taylor, acting battalion chief for Palm Beach Fire Rescue, said Picower's wife and housekeeper called 911 at about noon after finding him at the bottom of the pool.

When rescue workers arrived at the home at 1410 South Ocean Blvd., Barbara Picower and the housekeeper had already pulled him from the water, but he was not breathing.

"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."

Picower, 67, is the former New York lawyer and accountant alleged to have extracted billions of dollars from the Bernard Madoff investment scheme.

Palm Beach Police said in a press release that Picower was pronounced dead at 1:30. Officers are investigating the death as a drowning.

Medical center spokeswoman Denise Moore did not know the official cause of death Sunday afternoon.

I always question people found in their pool. Doesn't seem like a normal type of suicide to me. It'll be interesting if they come out with a finding of a heart attack.