52 Facts About Harry Markopolos

Harry M Markopolos was born on October 22,1956 and is an American former securities industry executive and a forensic accounting and financial fraud investigator.

From 1999 to 2008, Markopolos uncovered evidence that suggested that Bernie Madoff's wealth management business was a huge Ponzi scheme.

In 2000,2001, and 2005, Harry Markopolos alerted the US Securities and Exchange Commission of his views, supplying supporting documents, but each time the SEC ignored him or gave his evidence only a cursory investigation.

Harry Markopolos has criticized the SEC for failing to discover the Madoff fraud despite repeated tips, and for failing to investigate properly the larger companies it supervised.

Harry Markopolos attended Roman Catholic schools, graduating from Cathedral Preparatory School in Erie, Pennsylvania, in 1974.

Harry Markopolos received an undergraduate degree in Business Administration from Loyola College in Maryland in 1981, and a Master of Science in Finance from Boston College in 1997.

Harry Markopolos is a CFA charterholder, and a Certified Fraud Examiner.

Harry Markopolos began his career on Wall Street in 1987 as a broker with Makefield Securities, a small Erie-based brokerage.

Casey and Rampart's managing partner, Dave Fraley, asked Harry Markopolos to try to design a product similar to Madoff's split-strike conversion, in hopes of luring away Access from investing in Madoff.

When Harry Markopolos obtained a copy of Madoff's revenue stream, he spotted problems.

Harry Markopolos later said that he knew within five minutes that Madoff's numbers didn't add up.

Harry Markopolos claimed it took him another four hours to uncover enough evidence that he could mathematically prove that they could have been obtained only by fraud.

Harry Markopolos could find no evidence that the market was responding to any Madoff trades, even though by his estimate Madoff was managing as much as $6 billion, three times more than any known hedge fund at the time.

Harry Markopolos sent a more detailed submission to the SEC a year later.

Harry Markopolos offered to let the SEC send him to Madoff's headquarters undercover, obtain the trading tickets, and compare them with the Options Price Reporting Authority tape.

Harry Markopolos believed that his trading tickets would not match the OPRA tape, which would have been hard proof that Madoff was a fraud.

Harry Markopolos doubted this, since front-runners don't need the massive amount of new investor money that Madoff kept bringing in.

Additionally, Harry Markopolos believed that if Madoff was front-running, he would have to siphon off money from his broker-dealer arm to pay the investors in his hedge fund.

When Harry Markopolos heard this, he was convinced that Madoff's wealth-management business was a Ponzi scheme.

Harry Markopolos persevered, even though he felt that it created a considerable risk to his own safety.

Harry Markopolos learned during his European tour that a large number of funds invested with Madoff operated offshore.

On December 17,2002, Markopolos came up with a plan to deliver an investigative file anonymously to an aide of then Attorney General of New York Eliot Spitzer as Spitzer delivered a speech at the John F Kennedy Library in Boston.

Harry Markopolos put on a pair of white gloves to prevent leaving fingerprints, and wore an oversize coat.

The culmination of Harry Markopolos's analysis was a 21-page memo sent during November 2005 to SEC regulators, entitled "The World's Largest Hedge Fund is a Fraud".

Harry Markopolos outlined 30 red flags that he believed proved Madoff's returns could not be legitimate.

Harry Markopolos's analysis was based on more than 14 years of Madoff return numbers, during which time Madoff reported only four losing months, an implausible scenario that Markopolos said could be achieved only by fraud.

On June 3,2009, Harry Markopolos told a conference at Boston College, his alma mater, that he believed Madoff personally kept less than 1 percent of the $65 billion reported stolen, and would probably lose what remained of his portion to money launderers.

Harry Markopolos estimated that $35 billion to $55 billion of the money Madoff claimed to have stolen never really existed, but were simply fictional profits he reported to his clients.

Harry Markopolos believed that Madoff's customers lost $10 billion to $35 billion, most of which went to early investors.

On February 4,2009, Harry Markopolos testified before the United States Congress' House Financial Services Committee's capital markets panel and on March 1, appeared on CBS's 60 Minutes.

Harry Markopolos harshly criticized the SEC for ignoring his warnings about Madoff.

Harry Markopolos said that his original 2000 complaint gave the SEC enough evidence to stop Madoff when he was supposedly managing as little as $3 billion.

Harry Markopolos said that Madoff's "math never made sense," that his "return stream never resembled any known financial instrument or strategy," and that Madoff wasn't making the volumes of trades he claimed.

Harry Markopolos likened Madoff's purported returns to a baseball player batting.

Harry Markopolos had originally concealed his identity from SEC regulators during May 1999, although he did meet face-to-face with SEC officials in Boston during 2000 and 2001.

Harry Markopolos believed the FBI would reject his allegations without the SEC staff's endorsement.

Harry Markopolos believed that only a few SEC officials, including Manion and SEC Boston branch chief Mike Garrity, understood Madoff's operation well enough to detect the fraud.

Harry Markopolos met with Garrity during 2005, and said that while Garrity realized almost immediately that Madoff was violating the law, he could not take any action because Madoff was not based in New England.

Harry Markopolos later wrote that a few days after that meeting, Garrity called him and said his preliminary investigation revealed serious irregularities in the Madoff operation, and that he would have had inspection teams "tearing the place apart" if Madoff had been based in New England.

Harry Markopolos added that during 2005 it was Meaghan Cheung, the branch chief of the SEC's New York office, to whom he gave his 21-page report alleging that Madoff was paying old investors with money from fresh recruits.

Harry Markopolos testified he gave details about the case during 2005 to John Wilke, an investigative reporter for The Wall Street Journal, but that it was never pursued.

Harry Markopolos testified he sent a package of documents concerning Madoff to former New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, who had successfully prosecuted a number of securities fraud cases, but that Spitzer apparently did not act, either.

Harry Markopolos's testimony included a reference to another $1 billion Ponzi scheme, which he shared the next day with SEC Inspector General H David Kotz, who gave the tips to SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro.

Harry Markopolos disclosed information regarding a dozen as-yet-unknown foreign Madoff feeder funds, "hiding in the weeds" in Europe, the victims of which likely included Russian mafia and drug cartels, "dirty money" investors.

Harry Markopolos noted that during his tenure at Rampart, he traded with some of the biggest derivatives companies in the world, and none of them dealt with Madoff, because they didn't think his numbers were real.

Harry Markopolos admitted that he had some financial incentive to eliminate Madoff, as the two competed against each other from 2000 to 2004.

Harry Markopolos expanded on his criticism of the SEC in No One Would Listen.

Harry Markopolos claimed that SEC regulators don't have nearly enough expertise to understand the various products offered in the modern market; as he put it, the SEC was still "panning by hand".

Harry Markopolos believed that the SEC's enforcement staff didn't take his complaints seriously, because they were expecting legal proof Madoff was a fraud, not the mathematical evidence he provided.

In 2019, Harry Markopolos published a report alleging fraudulent accounting within General Electric.

Harry Markopolos is an American of Greek descent and is the eldest of three children of Georgia and Louis Harry Markopolos, Greek-American restaurateurs.

Harry Markopolos served in the United States Army Reserve and obtained the rank of Major and held the branch of Civil Affairs.