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Jeffry Picower – The Largest Philanthropic Fraud in American History?

ABBA -The Winner Takes it All (1980)

The history books are written by the winners. In the words of Swedish pop band, ABBA, ‘the Winner takes it all, the loser standing small, beside the victory, that’s [our] destiny.’  The relative triviality of the loser’s pain and suffering is often long forgotten. But it truly need not be that way.  With the Madoff Crime Family again in the headlines these days, what may be a worthwhile endeavor is to gather a petition of Madoff’s Victims worldwide to petition the institutions that benefited from donations made by one of the largest philanthropic frauds in American history —Jeffry Picower, the largest Madoff beneficiary. The petition should request that they strip his name as their donor of record and that  whatever that they have named in his honor should be appropriately renamed for the interests of those defrauded as well as for the integrity of said institution’s brand going forward and their ability to raise funds in the future . For example:

MIT’s Picower Institute for Learning and Memory

should be renamed to:

The Madoff/Picower Fraud Survivors Institute for Learning and Memory

Picower’s name should be removed from any institution that carries his name honoring his philanthropy. Too much of American philanthropy often comes in one name at the expense of those who have had their legacy taken from them. The Madoff Survivors have had their legacy taken from them while Mr. Picower has not.

Critical to the American Restoration movement is that  we discredit the legacy of those who have been honored for their philanthropic deeds with funds fraudulently obtained. In those cases it can be presumed that their generosity was not purely or honorably motivated but instead part of a fraudulent overall branding mechanism, the extension of their  philanthropic brand masking their covert criminal wealth redistribution schemes. America must cleanse itself and conduct an internal accounting or philanthropic colonic to liberate and detoxify ourselves from the stench of a legacy built on a cesspool of corruption or a mountain of crappola.

It matters not now that Mr. Picower was found dead and seemed to have curiously drowned in his own pool at his estate in Palm Beach, that his lawyer William Zabel of Schulte, Roth & Zabel, “who has has spent his career striking complex deals for wealthy families in sticky situations” according to the NY Times, negotiated a $7.2 Billion extraction from Mr. Picower’s widow in the form of a civil forfeiture to the U.S. Department of Justice.  Likewise that Mrs. Barbara Picower was rather graciously left with $200 million and her Palm Beach home so she could continue her ‘philanthropic works’ at this point is troubling but I will also concede it is no long relevant to the legacy of the Picower name.

This is a movement which may and ought to have legs.  Let us discredit those previously honored. The legacy of Jeffry Picower is an objective fraud so let us begin with him.  Despite the best public relations efforts of William Zabel and Picower’s widow, the   Department of Justice settlement has not cleared the Picower name as intended in the eyes of most American citizens.

Provides Anecdotal Evidence of Her Complicity in the Fraud

Full interview at 60 Minutes website

The wife and son of Ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff gave their first interview to Morley Safer of 60 Minutes on Sunday evening, October 30th.  Also joining the duo was their  ‘Black Umbrella’, Catherine Hooper, the founder of the aptly named disaster preparedness enterprise, who is engaged to and been living with Andrew Madoff in luxury condominium in one of the toniest zip codes on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.  The irony that these monsters came out on Halloween eve should not be lost on anyone. They were there to promote their con job and the book ‘Truth & Consequences: Life Inside the Madoff Family’. Hooper was reportedly the driving force behind publication of the book written by hand picked author Laurie Sandell.  It is based on interviews with Ruth, Andrew and the visually delectable and publicity oriented - Ms. Hooper.

The Media Whores who were ‘laying it on thick’ (with claims of a suicide pact and depression) in an effort to pull another  fast one on the American public, may have just have provided anecdotal evidence of their complicity in the fraud. After this interview, many Americans, including rightfully angry and vigilant Madoff fraud victims like Ilene Kent, will have the right to continue to believe that the Madoff Sons and their mother had full knowledge of and were participants in the monstrous fraudulent scheme along with other members of The MCF –Madoff Crime Family including Peter and Shana Madoff and key beneficiary, Philanthropic Fraud, Jeffrey Picower.  And then they continued on their circuit to Matt Lauer live on Halloween:

According to Andrew, Ruth’s first question was  ‘What’s a “Ponzi scheme?’ Come again? If you did not hesitate for even a moment when you heard that, let’s back up for a second here. Ruth was a math wiz who graduated from Queens College where she majored in Business Administration & Finance. She was working on Wall Street before Bernie Madoff.  In fact, biographers have detailed how Bernie was studying law at Brooklyn Law School before he dropped out to join his ambitious young wife on the street.  Ruthie went to Wall Street for similar reasons as Willie Sutton who was once asked why he robbed banks, famously answered, “Because That’s Where The Money Is.”  Let’s just say Ruthie knew where the money was.  According to reports, she was her husband’s bookkeeper, which it turns out required one to be a Chef as well.  Queens College may not be Harvard but it is a fine institution, hence I find it very hard to believe that the little mathematical wiz managing/cooking her husband’s books had no idea what was a Ponzi Scheme.