A man accused of making more than $7 billion off the investment schemes of jailed financial manager Bernard Madoff drowned after having a heart attack, authorities said yesterday. Jeffry Picower, 67, was found at about noon Sunday by his wife, Barbara, at the bottom of a pool at their oceanside mansion. She pulled him from the water with help from a housekeeper. He died a short time later at a nearby hospital.

Bernard Madoff’s brother, sons and a niece used the family finance business like a “piggy bank,“ a court-appointed trustee charged yesterday as he demanded in a lawsuit that they return nearly $200 million that fueled their lavish lifestyles at the expense of investors. Trustee Irving Picard sought $198.7 million from Madoff’s brother, Peter, who had worked at Madoff’s Manhattan investment company since 1965, and sons, Mark and Andrew.

Bernard Madoff’s life of luxury is a thing of the past. The disgraced financier, blamed for what is believed to be the largest Ponzi scheme in history, arrived yesterday at a federal prison in North Carolina to begin a 150-year sentence in a cell with two bunk beds, a toilet and a sink. Madoff—prisoner No. 61727-054—arrived somewhat under cover at the Butner Federal Correctional Complex about 45 miles northwest of Raleigh. Onlookers said a bus backed into the entrance, then a sport utility vehicle pulled in front of it, blocking photographers and TV cameras trying to get a glimpse.

Richmond businessman Allan Mullian received interest payments every month for about 10 years from his real estate investments. He invested in Richmond-area properties that Donald C. Lacey was to fix up and rent or flip at a profit. The checks stopped coming in November and he was told there was no more money. Mullian, 77, said he and his family had $2 million invested in as many as 100 properties in the Richmond area. “Losing that kind of money at my age is rough.“

Prosecutors: nothing for wife Assets in her name are fruits of Madoff’s fraud, lawyers charge Prosecutors probing Bernard Madoff’s massive fraud are determined to leave his wife with almost nothing after telling a Manhattan court that they consider more than $100 million in assets, most of it listed in her name, the fruits of her husband’s crimes.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged a Charlottesville resident with operating a multi-million dollar Ponzi scheme. John M. Donnelly and his three companies—Tower Analysis Inc., Nasco Tang Corp. and Nadia Capital Corp.—face charges of violating federal securities and exchange acts. According to the SEC, Donnelly fraudulently obtained at least $11 million from as many as 31 investors via the sale of securities in the form of limited partnerships in his three investment funds.