Jeffry Picower, the philanthropist behind the foundation that fundedPicower Institute for Learning and Memory at MIT, has died of a heart attack.

Picower’s name came up as an investor with Ponzi schemer Bernard Madoff, but he may have made more money than Madoff himself from the scheme. He’d been sued by the lawyer who is liquidating Madoff’s assets, who says Picower himself may have made more than $5 billion in fake profits.

In 2002, the Picower Foundation gave MIT $50 million to establish the Picower Center, which focuses on brain and cognitive research. After Madoff’s arrest in December 2009, the foundation shut down, saying it had run out of money.