Money From Bernie Madoff’s Most Successful Client Now Fuels Climate Lawfare

Barbara and Jeffry Picower , a lawyer and accountant who managed tax shelters, were the single largest beneficiaries of Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme.

They made more than $7.2 billion by withdrawing other investors’ money from Madoff’s scheme, according to court documents from the Madoff case.

Barbara Picower was allowed to collect the $200 million inheritance from her husband, who at one point quietly held over $10 billion in his investment accounts.

She used her husband's estate to establish the JPB Foundation , which is now spending millions of dollars funding climate lawsuits that seek billions in damages with the goal of bankrupting the fossil fuel industry.

A study from the American Enterprise Institute , a right-leaning think tank, found that the Green New Deal’s “net zero ” emissions proposal would require around $490 billion a year in investments to so-called green energy and would lead to a sharp decrease in land for agricultural needs. The Green New Deal also fails to consider that the vast majority of industrial pollution comes from China and India , meaning changes in the United States would decimate its economy without making any significant dent in the total amount of global pollution. Neither the JPB Foundation nor Sher Edling responded to requests for comment..