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A major investor in convicted swindler Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme drowned in his swimming pool in Florida after a heart attack, his attorney said Monday, and the medical examiner’s office confirmed the report.

Jeffry Picower, 67, was found unconscious in his pool shortly after noon Sunday at his Palm Beach, Fla., home by his wife, Palm Beach police said. He was pronounced dead at Good Samaritan Hospital.

Picower’s attorney, William Zabel, told CNN that Picower drowned after suffering a massive heart attack. Sue Jaffe, spokeswoman for the Palm Beach County medical examiner, confirmed those details.

In September, Forbes Magazine ranked Picower number 371 among the 400 richest Americans, with a net worth of $1 billion.

In March, Madoff was convicted of operating a Ponzi scheme and defrauding thousands of investors, and was sentenced to 150 years in prison after pleading guilty to 11 felony counts of fraud, money laundering and perjury. Prosecutors have said it was the largest investor fraud ever committed by a single person, totaling billions in losses to investors.

When the Picower Foundation of Palm Beach announced it was shutting down early this year because of Madoff losses, it initially appeared that the prominent philanthropist had been an unfortunate victim of Madoff’s Ponzi scheme. Picower’s 2007 tax return had valued his foundation’s portfolio at $955 million.

However, in May, court filings by Madoff trustee Irving Picard changed the picture. The trustee’s complaint claimed that Picower had been a key beneficiary of Madoff’s Ponzi scheme for more than 20 years, and "knew or should have known that [he] was profiting from fraud because of the implausibly high rates of return" on his accounts payday advance lender.

Those "anomalous and astronomical rates of return" — as high as 500% in one year and 950% in another year — "were neither credible nor consistent with legitimate trading activity, and should have caused any reasonable investor … to inquire further," the court filings said, referring to Picower as "a sophisticated investor, accountant and lawyer."

Citing backdated account filings and other bogus paperwork, the complaint contends that "Picower and the other defendants also knew or should have known that they were reaping the benefits of manipulated purported returns, false documents and fictitious profit."

The Picowers recently told The New York Times that the publicity and controversy surrounding their connection to Bernie Madoff had been a great source of heartache.

"We always have been private people, and having all this play out in the media has taken a big toll on our health," the couple wrote in response to questions posed by reporters. "We feel stunned, betrayed, angry, sickened, devastated," they said, and were only able to draw strength and consolation "from each other and from the knowledge that we did nothing wrong."

– from CNN’s Mythili Rao 

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Home mortgage rates saw an up-and-down week but ended almost unchanged, according to a report released Thursday.

The average 30-year fixed mortgage slipped to 5.58% from 5.59% the week prior, and the 15-year fixed held at 4.93%.

The lack of change belies rates’ "yo-yo movement" over the week, said the weekly national survey from Bankrate.com.

"It was an active week for mortgage rates," the report added. "After first declining on continued economic weakness, mortgage rates reversed ground following corporate earnings that weren’t as bad as feared."

As a result, investors have flocked to the safety of government and mortgage-backed bonds. Mortgage rates are closely related to yields on long-term government debt.

Volatility is likely to continue amid uncertain recovery sentiment and mixed economic data, the report warned.

Current rates remain much lower than last year’s levels, when the average 30-year fixed mortgage rate was 6 payday loans in one hour.42%, according to Bankrate.com.

At the current rate of 5.58%, the monthly payment on a $200,000 mortgage would be $1,145.63, or about $108 less than the monthly payment at last year’s rate.

Adjustable-rate mortgages: ARMs continue to post mixed results, the report said, with the average 1-year ARM rising to 5.22% from 5.18%, and the 5-year ARM falling to 4.98% from 5.05%.

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JPMorgan Chase & Co posted a higher quarterly profit on Thursday, topping Wall Street estimates, as strength in its core consumer and investment banking businesses offset a jump in credit losses.

Second-quarter net income rose to $2.72 billion from $2 billion a year earlier, while net revenue jumped 41 percent to $27.71 billion.

Profit per share fell to 28 cents from 53 cents, due in part to an increase in shares outstanding.

The bank said it set aside $9.7 billion for credit losses, up from $4.29 billion a year earlier but down from the first quarter’s $10.07 billion.

JPMorgan last month repaid $25 billion taken from the Troubled Asset Relief Program and is the largest U.S. bank to repay federal bailout money. It has said it will allow the Treasury Department to auction the attached stock warrants, rather than pay an inflated price to buy them back healthinsurance.

Chief Executive Jamie Dimon said in a statement that the bank felt confident that its capital, reserve levels and earnings power are solid even if the economy weakens.

Second-quarter results included per-share charges of 27 cents relating to the TARP repayment, and 10 cents to bolster a federal deposit insurance program.

Analysts on average had expected profit of 4 cents per share on revenue of $25.91 billion, according to Reuters Estimates.

JPMorgan shares closed Wednesday at $36.26 on the New York Stock Exchange. Through Wednesday, the shares had risen 15 percent this year, compared with a 14.4 percent decline in the KBW Bank Index.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel; editing by John Wallace)

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For years, Grant Opperman’s tiny delivery company struggled to keep up with the giants of its industry.

FedEx (FDX, Fortune 500) and UPS (UPS, Fortune 500) deployed tracking technology that could pinpoint a package within minutes of its arrival at any given facility. Opperman’s 90-employee firm — D.W. Morgan, based in Pleasanton, Calif. — was forced to rely on the memories of its 30 drivers, who were instructed to phone the boss whenever a shipment arrived. The drivers didn’t always remember to call, and managers spent hours on the phone following up. When clients — which included 20 Fortune 500 companies — called about an undelivered package, Opperman couldn’t tell them where it was.

That was okay for a niche company (D.W. Morgan delivers high-tech hardware) with $50 million in annual revenues. But Opperman dreamed of international expansion and knew he needed a better tracking system. He couldn’t afford what the big guys had — FedEx alone spends $1 billion each year on its tracking setup. So he bought the cheapest iPhone ($200) for each of his drivers, paid $300 for a developer’s license from Apple (AAPL, Fortune 500) and asked one of his in-house tech specialists to build a custom application that used the phone’s global positioning system (GPS) technology.

"I had to be creative to show my value," Opperman says.

Not so long ago, most of us associated GPS with expensive in-car guidance systems that gave driving instructions in patronizing voices. Today, the receiver technology, which can pinpoint your position anywhere on the planet based on data from six orbital satellites, is cheap, and small enough to fit in many phones. Most major carriers now sell GPS packages on cell phones starting at $10 per phone per month.

Global spending on GPS receivers and software is set to hit $13 billion by 2013, according to ABI Research in London, up from $2.5 billion today. Entrepreneurs like Opperman are getting creative with the technology — using it to keep tabs on remote workers, to track down stolen machinery and even to plant crops.

"GPS is pervading every aspect of life and business," says Dominique Bonte, practice director at ABI. "You’ll see many more applications in the future."

D.W. Morgan’s clients can now track shipments online in real time. The custom application — developed in six weeks — displays the precise location of each truck on a Google (GOOG, Fortune 500) map. Drivers ask package recipients to sign their iPhone screens. The signatures are immediately uploaded to the company Web site.

"Even the big guys don’t get it that fast," says Opperman proudly.

For a total investment of $21,000, including the salary of one IT worker for six weeks and $5,970 for 30 iPhones, Opperman estimates he will save $96,000 a year, based on the number of work hours he and his drivers spent filing, getting signature documentation and making manual data entries. Better yet, the system is allowing him to expand: Starting at the end of this year, D.W. Morgan will begin delivering in the Czech Republic and Thailand.

There’s no need to build your own iPhone application, though. AT&T (T, Fortune 500), Verizon (VZ, Fortune 500) and Sprint (S, Fortune 500) sell GPS packages using software from Gearworks of Eagan, Minn., TeleNav of Sunnyvale, Calif. and Xora of Mountain View, Calif. The cheapest deals buy you basic driving directions. Those monthly prices don’t include data plans, which typically range between $15 and $30 per month. Expect a onetime activation charge of $20 to $25 per phone to be tacked on.

More expensive packages, which run about $22 per phone per month, include features such as GPS time-carding, which allows employees to clock in and out using their cell phones. A tool called geo-fencing lets you draw a boundary on a map and sends text alerts if your employees cross it fast cash advance. Users of iPhones can download MotionX-GPS, a $2.99 application that will track routes and overlay the path on a Google map, tracing where they’ve gone and how long it took to reach their destination.

Getting started isn’t always simple, as John Tartaglione discovered. Tartaglione owns JMS Partners, a residential construction firm based in Hopkinton, Mass. He installed Xora’s GPS app on his four employees’ cell phones so they could clock in remotely from job sites. But getting the software to work properly was a frustrating experience that took a couple of months, including many hours on the phone with Xora’s tech support staff.

Tartaglione’s employees hated being tracked. Some simply turned off their phones. Many viewed the entire system as a waste of resources. Carrie MacGillivray, a senior analyst at Framingham, Mass.-based research firm IDC, calls getting support from employees the greatest challenge in GPS tracking.

"They don’t want Big Brother," she says.

Tartaglione has yet to demonstrate the system’s worth to his employees. Still, remote time cards shaved off 15 minutes here and there from the time workers claimed they were at the job site. The result: a few thousand dollars in payroll costs saved. Now, when bidding new work, Tartaglione knows better how long it really takes to get a job done.

"This clearly helps me with profitability," says Tartaglione. "It’s been invaluable."

Pros and cons

GPS snooping can be legally risky, particularly if your monitoring extends beyond working hours — even if you don’t know it. Fire or reprimand an employee and she could claim that your knowledge of her off-hour activities — such as a medical appointment or a union meeting — was being used unfairly.

"When they’re not working, turn it off," advises Jonathan Segal, an employment attorney with WolfBlock in Philadelphia.

On the other hand, precise time tracking can also work to the advantage of employees. When Gem Plumbing, Heating and Electric installed a GPS system to keep its 168 trucks on schedule, the Lincoln, R.I.-based firm offered bonuses to drivers who reached customers on time. The more efficient the technician, the bigger the bonus.

Gem’s technicians now reach 95% of appointments on time, up from 50% before the GPS system was installed. The average monthly bonus per worker: $750.

"Employees need to know what’s in it for them," says Gem president Anthony Gemma.

If GPS turns out to be integral to your business and you need more than phones can offer, you can upgrade to more specialized, sophisticated GPS hardware from established players such as Navtrak, based in Salisbury, Md.; NetworkFleet, out of San Diego; and Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Trimble. Operating costs for these systems can range from a few hundred dollars to several thousand dollars a month, depending on your requirements.

Trimble alone generates revenue of $1.3 billion a year selling GPS equipment such as "precision agriculture" systems that control and drive forklifts and tractors. Thanks to Trimble, Iowa corn farmer Dennis Smith can climb on his tractor, push a button and watch his fields get seeded and fertilized in perfectly straight rows. The payoff: Smith’s crop yields and profits have both climbed 5% in the year since he adopted the system.

Better yet, Smith and his single employee can work longer hours with less fatigue.

"I will not farm without it anymore," says Smith, who invested about $65,000 in the system, including activation fees and money spent on base stations, receivers, navigation controllers and antennae. "You can literally sit and read the newspaper while the tractor tills the field."  

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<credit-solo/>Guarantee Electrical

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The next auto businesses on the chopping block will be 2,600 General Motors dealerships.

GM Chief Executive Fritz Henderson said Monday that the company would by the end of the week start notifying dealerships it wants to eliminate over the course of the next year. The company said last month that it planned to eventually eliminate 42% of its 6,250 dealer locations, which employ more than 300,000 workers among them.

On Thursday, Chrysler LLC’s announced that it is dropping nearly 800 Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep dealers, or about a quarter of its network, as part of its bankruptcy restructuring.

GM (GM, Fortune 500) is not yet in bankruptcy court, although Henderson has said such a filing is "probable." The company has until the end of the month to win agreement from creditors, unions and dealerships on a turnaround plan or the Treasury Department, which has been bankrolling GM’s ongoing losses, has said it will force the company to file for bankruptcy.

GM, Chrysler and Detroit rival Ford Motor (F, Fortune 500) all have far larger U.S. dealer networks than their Asian rivals, a remnant to the days when the so-called Big Three dominated the market in a way they no longer do.

Many of the GM dealership cuts have been telegraphed by the company’s broader cuts in its brands.

The company intends to close about 400 Saturn dealerships as it drops its youngest brand, as well as about 200 Saab dealers, another brand the company intends to give up.

Two other GM brands on the way out, Hummer and Pontiac, face a different scenario. National Automobile Dealers Association figures show there are 18 Hummer and 39 Pontiac dealerships that don’t sell other GM brands.

But most Hummer and Pontiac dealers will stay with GM because they have other GM brands under the same roof. For example, almost all of Pontiac’s 2,600 dealers also sell either Buick, GMC or both.

The other 2,000 dealers to be cut will be in major metropolitan and suburban areas online pay day loans. GM’s own turnaround plans say "dealership overcapacity is most prevalent" in those markets.

The expectation is that the surviving dealerships will become larger and more profitable as a result of the thinning out, which in turn will allow them to spend more on advertising and facilities. But GM also acknowledges that its long-term decline in U.S. market share will continue as a result of the smaller network of dealers.

Typically it is an expensive proposition to buy out dealers. GM spent about $1 billion dropping Oldsmobile at the start of the decade, mostly in payments to 2,800 dealers and the repurchase of their inventory of vehicles and parts.

The company believes that the threat of bankruptcy, plus the difficult financial condition that has led to hundreds of dealership closings in the past year, will allow a far less expensive cutting of the dealership network this time.

GM’s 2,700 rural dealership locations are relatively safe, even if they have lower sales volumes than some of the dealerships that will be cut. GM’s turnaround plans released in February anticipated few cuts in the rural dealers in the near term.

But GM has since announced plans to cut much deeper into its overall dealership network. That earlier version of the turnaround plan called for it to cut its network to 4,100 dealerships by 2014. Now it expects to get that number down to 3,600 by next year, with most of them being eliminated this year.

The NADA and dealership groups at GM and Chrysler are fighting the dealership reduction plans, lobbying Congress and hiring bankruptcy attorneys. They hope that state franchise laws will give them the leverage they need to at least reduce the extent of the planned cuts. 

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When Canada’s do-not-call list was launched last September, two outcomes were easy to predict. The first was that the list would prove enormously popular, with millions of phone numbers registered in a matter of months. The second was that Canadians would ultimately be left disappointed with little reduction in unwanted telemarketing calls and concerns about the ability of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission to enforce the law.

Four months later, the do-not-call list contains roughly six million registered phone numbers and, as expected, there are a growing number of Canadians – including Industry Minister Tony Clement – expressing misgivings about the potential for abuse.

The problems associated with the do-not-call list fall into three categories. The first, which was readily apparent years before the list became operational, is that there are far too many exceptions that allow for the majority of telemarketing calls to continue unhindered. With exceptions for survey companies, political parties, charities, newspapers, and businesses with a prior relationship, some estimate 80 per cent of telemarketing calls are not covered by the do-not-call legislation.

The second problem revolves around the technical structure of the do-not-call list. As has been well reported, the list – all six million numbers – is available to any telemarketer. With numerous reports of abuse, the danger of making the numbers available to the very organizations precluded from calling those same numbers is now readily apparent.

The third problem is tied to enforcement. The do-not-call legislation includes provisions for significant penalties, but it falls to the CRTC to investigate complaints and pursue penalties. There have been many complaints filed, but to date, no penalties.

Some of the enforcement problems are linked to jurisdiction – the CRTC’s jurisdictional mandate ends at the border and its ability to levy penalties against an out-of-country organization is very limited – but there is also mounting evidence that Canadian companies are disregarding the CRTC’s own rulings and effectively daring the Commission to bring actions.

For example, last summer the CRTC ruled that do-not-call requests registered through third party services such as iOptOut free credit report.ca (a site I founded) were valid and should be honoured. IOptOut.ca has generated nearly eight million opt-out requests. There have, however, been several online reports that blue chip companies such as Bell Canada and the Bank of Nova Scotia are refusing to accept the opt-out requests in direct contravention of the CRTC ruling.

With many more do-not-call registrations likely on the way and Clement vowing to take action, can the do-not-call list be saved?

The short answer is yes, though reversing the do-not-call disaster will require action from both the government and the CRTC. The government should start by paring back the current overbroad exceptions. A do-not-call list that exempts the majority of telemarketing calls is bound to disappoint, and the only way to address that issue is to return to the bill as it was originally presented in the House of Commons without exceptions.

Further, Clement should open talks with the United States to address some of the jurisdictional limitations of the do-not-call list. Given that the U.S. faces some of the same concerns, a mutual recognition approach that would establish a North America-wide do-not-call list is a logical next step.

Meanwhile, the CRTC must also step up to the plate. It bears responsibility for enforcing the law and it needs to send a strong signal that it is fully prepared to investigate complaints and to levy tough penalties for non-compliance. In that regard, the Commission should target high profile organizations to send the message that no one is above the law.

Given its remarkable popularity, doing away with the do-not-call list is not an option. The government bought it, then broke it, and now it must fix it.

Michael Geist holds the Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-commerce Law at the University of Ottawa, Faculty of Law. Email: mgeist@uottawa.ca or online at www.michaelgeist.ca.

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Automakers at the world’s premier auto show have pinned their hopes on “green” models but for some companies the immediate future is shaping up as a battle for survival.

U.S. auto sales dropped by 18 percent in 2008 to a 16-year low of 13.2 million, pushing financially strapped General Motors Corp and Chrysler to the brink of collapse.

In December the two were approved for $17.4 billion in emergency government loans. But the money has conditions that must be met as early as March and include more concessions from the United Auto Workers union and company debt holders.

“People are wondering, ‘Is the company going to make it? Is the company going to be viable?’” GM Chief Operating Officer Fritz Henderson told reporters at the Detroit auto show.

Henderson, vice chairman Bob Lutz and other GM executives said they were confident GM could make the changes it needs to turn itself around with U.S. government support. But they also indicated they could need further help along the way.

Ford Motor Co has not asked for government loans but told lawmakers last year it wanted a $9 billion line of credit from the government in case the U.S. economy worsens.

“We still believe there is a good chance for a recovery starting in the second half,” Ford’s Chief Financial Officer Lewis Booth said on Monday cheap payday loans.

Display rooms at the cavernous Cobo Center were filled as usual with dozens of shiny cars, trucks and other vehicles, with staff feather-dusting the models and media milling around a reduced number of exhibits.

A number of big automakers, including Nissan Motor Co, pulled out of the show this year to save money.

For those who remained, the stars of the show were a slew of new or improved fuel-efficient and eco-friendly “green” cars like the Toyota Prius and Chevrolet Volt, an all-electric sedan General Motors rolled out as a “concept” two years ago.

GM said it was on track to offer the revolutionary vehicle in November, 2010, and on Monday announced a major contract with Korean manufacturer LG Chem Ltd to make the batteries, the key to success for all new electric vehicles.

But uncertainty continued to trump hope for most.

Lutz, the biggest booster of the Volt, was asked if U.S. auto sales were going to recover to the 15-million unit level.

“Who the heck knows?” Lutz told reporters.

GREEN: TOO LITTLE, TOO LATE FOR BIG 3? 

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President-elect Obama on Thursday kept up his blistering pace of naming top officials by announcing three people he will nominate as financial regulators.

During a press conference in Chicago, he said that "creating a regulatory structure that prevents broad systemic risk" will be a top priority in his administration.

"We have been asleep at the switch," Obama said, referring to the failure of regulators, lawmakers and White House officials to foresee the systemic meltdown that has battered the economy and financial markets.

One of his administration’s early initiatives, Obama said, would be to streamline regulatory agencies and reform financial to better address 21st century developments in the financial markets.

Obama promised to "restore a sense of responsibility" to Wall Street and Washington so traders, regulators, shareholders and others "operate out of a sense for the common good," while at the same time ensuring conditions are conducive for both Wall Street and Main Street to prosper.

To help him execute his regulatory goals, Obama named Mary Schapiro to head the Securities and Exchange Commission, which regulates companies with publicly traded securities. Schapiro currently is chief executive of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, the largest non-government regulator for securities firms that do business with the U.S. public.

Obama’s announcement comes on the heels of growing criticism that the SEC failed to act on information it had that could have prevented one of the largest investment fraud cases in history.

"We’ll ensure openness, accountability and transparency in our markets," Obama said at a press conference in Chicago. "And instead of appointing people with disdain for regulation, I will ensure that our regulatory agencies are led by individuals who are ready and willing to enforce the law."

Schapiro has a long track record as a financial regulator during the Reagan, Bush and Clinton administrations. She headed the Commodity Futures Trading Commission during the Clinton administration and the National Association of Securities Dealers in 2006 quick pay day loan. She also briefly served as the SEC’s acting chair in 1993, and had been a commissioner there for six years before that.

Obama also tapped Gary Gensler to chair the Commodities Futures Trading Commission, which regulates the futures and options markets and ensures fair trading practices.

Gensler, a former partner at Goldman Sachs, was the Treasury’s assistant secretary for financial markets during the Clinton administration. He also served as an adviser to Hillary Clinton’s presidential exploratory committee and before that was senior adviser to Sen. Paul Sarbanes, chairman of the Senate Banking Committee who was instrumental in getting a law passed in the wake of the Enron scandal to create more transparency in corporate accounting.

Co-author of "The Great Mutual Fund Trap," Gensler was a vocal critic of mutual funds’ fees and the undisclosed incentives brokers had to sell them. He blamed the SEC for lax oversight of the industry.

Earlier this year, the CFTC was blasted by Democratic lawmakers and others for not taking a stronger hand with oil speculators and for brushing aside the theory that oil speculation unduly pushing oil prices to record highs earlier this year.

Finally, Obama named Georgetown law professor Dan Tarullo to fill a vacant seat on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, which among other things determines monetary policy for the country and is making unprecedented moves to curtail the country’s financial crisis.

Tarullo, whose specialty is international economics and banking, held several senior posts in the Clinton administration, ultimately becoming the assistant to the president for international economic policy. He also served as an economic adviser during Obama’s election campaign.

During his term, Obama will have the opportunity to make at least two more appointments to the Fed’s seven-member board.

CNNMoney.com senior writer Tami Luhby contributed to this report. 

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