◼ Media Matters for America accepted funding from at least three foundations whose money “grew” under the fraudulent stewardship of the now-incarcerated Bernard Madoff. One of those foundations was backed by a man many believe was in cahoots with the legendary financial criminal. - Daily Caller
Among those institutions that saw their fortunes evaporate were foundations that had placed their trust and investments in Madoff’s surreal enterprise. Three of those philanthropies contributed money to Media Matters in 2008, at least one of which may have even been complicit in Madoff’s scheme.
The Picower Foundation, which The New York Times referred to as “one of the nation’s leading philanthropies,” shuttered its $1 billion enterprise after Madoff’s arrest. Barbara Picower, who co-founded the charity with her late husband, investor Jeffry M. Picower, told the Times in December 2008 that Madoff’s “act of fraud has had a devastating impact on tens of thousands of lives as well as numerous philanthropic foundations and nonprofit organizations.”
But Jeffry Picower was one of Madoff’s single largest beneficiaries, and many believe he was hardly an unwitting victim of the Madoff scheme. According to Rick Stone, an attorney representing a purported class of Madoff victims, Picower could even be seen as a more nefarious actor than Madoff.
Picower was “a bigger fraudulent actor than Madoff himself because Madoff — at best estimate — he and his family, took $800 million out of the scheme,” Stone told The Daily Caller. ”And we know that Picower took at least $7 billion out of this scheme.” Get the whole story at The Daily Caller... Media Matters won't say if it will return the money
