Media Matters for America accepted funding from at least three foundations that invested in Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme, including one that may have been complicit in the fraudulent activity. The Daily Caller reports:
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.