WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — 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 around noon Sunday by his wife, Barbara, at the bottom of a pool at their oceanside mansion. She eventually pulled him from the water with help from a housekeeper. He died a short time later at a nearby hospital.

An autopsy conducted yesterday found he suffered a heart attack and drowned, said Dr. Michael Bell, chief medical examiner for Palm Beach County.

The death has been ruled accidental, and the heart attack was brought on by heart disease.

Toxicology tests are pending.

TREASURY NEAR DEAL ON 'TOO BIG TO FAIL'

WASHINGTON — The Treasury Department and a senior House Democrat have decided against making financial firms pay upfront the costs of dismantling them if regulators decide they have grown "too big to fail," according to a House aide familiar with the plan.

Instead, those companies would be allowed to borrow money from the government.

The government would then recoup the costs by either seizing the firm's profits or seeking restitution from the entire industry, the aide said.

The aide spoke on condition of anonymity because details had not been released.

Rep. Barney Frank, the Massachusetts Democrat who chairs the House Financial Services Committee, is expected to announce the agreement today.

EXTENSION OF TAX CREDIT PROPOSED

WASHINGTON — Top Democrats in the Senate are pressing a plan that would extend a popular tax credit for first-time homebuyers but gradually phase it out over the course of next year.

The proposal, by Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., would extend the $8,000 tax credit — which expires Nov. 30 — through March 31.

Its value would drop by $2,000 for each of the subsequent three quarters of 2010.

The plan, which could face a vote in the Senate this week, appears aimed at countering a far more generous $17 billion bipartisan plan that would extend the $8,000 credit through June 30, 2010, boost the income cap for eligibility and open the credit to all buyers, rather than just first-timers.