Posted on 03/16/2009 5:30:36 AM PDT by ninonitti
Exclusive Bottom Line Report
One man tried for almost 10 years to bring down Bernard Madoff, the disgraced financier who pleaded guilty March 12 to bilking investors in an elaborate Ponzi scheme. Harry Markopolos was the would-be whistleblower who tried, fruitlessly, to get federal authorities to investigate.
Instead, Markopolos was rebuked, and Madoff’s scheme eventually collapsed on its own. Charities, retirement funds, banks and individual investors watched $65 billion disappear overnight.
In his only radio interview, and his first since Madoff pleaded guilty, Markopolos tells WBUR it’s too early to celebrate. “I know that Mr. Madoff had lots and lots of helpers,” Markopolos says. “I want his helpers, his aiders and his abettors behind bars, too, and then I’m going to be satisfied.”
WBUR’s Curt Nickisch talked with host Deb Becker about what’s next for Markopolos.
Great interview. Who is this man (besides the whistleblower)? I am really impressed.
There’s something about Markopoulos that I didn’t like, can’t quite put my finger on it. He obviously had serious doubts about Madoff, but I wonder how hard he actually pushed. It’s like he’s looking for credit and fame by piggybacking on the whole mess.
As a Madoff competitor of sorts, the SEC might have been slow to checkout Marko’s complaint. Unless he had hard data and made a lot of noise. There are thousands of people constantly complaining that they got burned in their investments. Since Marko did not personally suffer and up until the end, neither did Madoff’s suckers, maybe the SEC figured he didn’t have “standing.”
A nobody evidentally....at least to the SEC.
IIRC He worked at another investment firm as an analyst and could never model anything to come up with the consistent returns Madoff's clients were supposedly receiving. His conclusion: total fraud.
He took it to the SEC but they dismissed his concerns.....he after all was a "nobody" and Bernie was well,......how shall we say - somebody.
He could have been and probably was dismissed as a jealous competitor but from what I've seen the SEC didn't follow up on anything because Bernie was somehow beyond reproach (might have been all that money he tossed to the DNC).
Actually, Mr. Markopoulos was a private investor. I think the SEC failed due to plain laziness; among bureacrats, this is very common.
Madoff was a former head of NASDAQ and served on a private board of dieectors. During that time there was little if any scandal implicating Madoff. At that time, the government minions saw very little in his past that raised red flags and wrongly assumed that Markoppoulos was fearmongering. As Harry Markopoulos continued to raise questions, these SEC personnel, in typical knee-jerk style, just tossed his letters into the circular file.
This type of behavior happens all the time at the local government level, particularly when it involves a “prominent” citizen. In addition, it’s quite possible that political contributions by Madoff to certain Democrat politicians blunted possibility of investigation. Unfortunately, the aforementioned scenario has taken place in Illinois involving both Republicans and Dems.
Thanks. Joe the Plumber strikes again. I thot his interview was very thoughtful and deep. He went to the den of foxes, tho, to report on the fox in the hen house. Perhaps we need a parallel government to work for We the People. What a bunch of crooks.
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