New Foundation Returns Jeffry Picower’s Widow to Philanthropic Fore

Forbes looks at the renewed giving of Barbara Picower and her JPB Foundation, the successor of the family philanthropy she and her late husband, billionaire financier Jeffry Picower, closed in the wake of the Bernard Madoff scandal.

According to tax records, JPB had $1.1-billion in assets at the end of 2012—more than the Picower Foundation had when it was shut down four years earlier—making it one of the 40 largest U.S. foundations. It made $104-million in grants in its first two years of operation, focusing on medical research, poverty, and the environment.

Mr. Picower, who died in October 2009, was the biggest beneficiary of Mr. Madoff’s Ponzi scheme. The JPB foundation has been funded by money remaining in Mr. Picower’s estate after it agreed to repay the $7.2-billion he and his family reaped from Madoff investments under a 2011 settlement.