I wonder what would have happened if Harry Markopolos went to lunch at Bernard Madoff’s Palm Beach Country Club in the fall of 2000, stood up in the dining room, and shouted “Madoff is a fraud!” I suspect Madoff’s fellow club members, many of whom joined for the sole purpose of meeting Madoff and getting invited to put millions in his investment fund, would have looked the other way. A guy who screams fraud in a crowded country club would be considered a nut, especially given the returns Madoff’s investors were getting on paper.
Harry Markopolos is not a nut. And shouting fraud in a crowded room is not his style. Harry Markopolos goes through proper channels. The proper channels didn’t work. He started blowing the whistle on Bernard Madoff’s alleged Ponzi scheme nearly a decade ago. But it was a whistle in the wilderness.