Jeffry and Barbara Picower held more than twenty accounts with BLMIS through their foundations in both Manhatten and Palm Spring—an investment portfolio at an estimated value of nearly $1 billion. Picower, an accountant, investor, and lawyer, often led the buyouts of health insurance companies, though he and his wife possessed all accounts jointly. Following Madoff's guilty plea, trustee Irving Picard in his endeavors to liquidate all assets tied to the Ponzi scheme filed a lawsuit against the Picowers demanding the return of 7.2 billion dollars in profit. According to Picard, the Picowers should have been well aware of the source of their "implausibly high" returns. Both likely fit the profile of the early investor within the know of Madoff's Ponzi scheme, reaping the high returns as more new investors bought on to the firm. In October of 2009, Jeffry Picower was found dead from a heart attack at the bottom of his swimming pool. In 2010, Barbara as the executor of the Picower estate agreed to the $7.2 billion settlement, the single largest forfeiture of assets in American judicial history.
