As you can see from the attached image, Harry Markopolos is pissed. Markopolos is the fraud investigator who brought down Mixmaster Madoff, and he's releasing a book next week that gives the inside dirt on this epic Ponzi scheme, missed opportunities, and award-winning foot dragging.
Among the highlights:
The book is called "No One Would Listen" and details his early interactions with the SEC, who he claims just about categorically ignored his findings on Madoff's douchebaggery and "usually didn't understand what he was talking about."
"As I explained this massive fraud to [the New England Director of Enforcement]," Marcopolos says, "it very quickly became clear he didn't understand a single word I said after hello... if blank looks were dollar bills, I would have walked out of that room a rich man ... I never knew if that represented a lack of interest, a lack of comprehension, or simply a desire to go to lunch." Brilliant.
It's a good thing Marcopolos took his anger to the written word, because with the title "No One Would Listen," it seems he was one step away from buying a shotgun.
What's more: Markopolos also reveals that -- had he felt threatened by Madoff -- he indeed would have gone medieval on Bernie's ass. "If he contacted me and threatened me, I was going to drive down to New York and take him out ... The government would have forced me into it by failing to do its job ... In that situation I felt I had no other options. I was going to kill him."
Where the f*** was Batman? That's what I want to know...
Marcopolos approached the SEC with 20 other cases of market timing, which apparently gave evidence that certain companies had stolen billions of dollars from their investors ... and yet again ... he was soundly ignored by the SEC.
He also has some choice words for the media: "I think the editors at Forbes, like so many others we were to encounter, were victims of their own hubris... In fact, I suspect that the only way they would have taken it less seriously was if it had been written in crayon." BAM.
The good news for Wall Street? The Whistleblower Extraordinaire is working on several other big cases of health care fraud, which he says "makes Wall Street look honest."
I'm voting Marcopolos for President in '012.
The beautiful thing about SEC's regulatory impotence (yeah I went there) is that regulators were given more power after the gov't discovered how many balls were dropped in this case. Politicians and their appointed ilk are some of the dumbest on Earth.
The government and all of its subsidiaries are a complete and utter waste of space. I suggest a military coup Turkey style.
...or try to hire decent people in your regulatory authority.... ?? Wow, sorry, didn't know what overcame me there... phew sorry, must have been the lunch.
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