Estate of Jeffry Picower agrees to turn over $7.2 billion to trustee recovering the money for Madoff’s victims

The estate of a Florida businessman has agreed to turn over $7.2 billion to the trustee appointed to recover money for Bernard Madoff’s victims.

The widow of Jeffry Picower, who is believed to have received the single-largest beneficiary of Madoff’s Ponzi scheme, has agreed to return “proceeds” collected over 35 years.

According to Preet Bharara, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, the money represents more than one third of the total losses from Madoff’s crime.

Bharara called what Picower’s wife, Barbara, did commendable saying the $7.2 billion combine with the $2.6 billion that’s already recovered in stolen assets, is nearly “half of the $20 billion lost to Madoff’s scheme.”

Jeffry Picower, who was a philanthropist and businessman, drowned on October 25, 2009 after suffering a heart attack while swimming in his pool at his Palm Beach mansion.

Today’s settlement is believed to be the largest civil forfeiture.

Madoff, 72, is serving a 150-year sentence after pleading guilty to orchestrating the massive fraud over decades.  U.S prosecutors initially estimated the fraud took in about $65 billion.