No One Would Listen

Starred review from February 22, 2010
Markopolos, the whistleblower who filed five unheeded complaints against Ponzi king Bernie Madoff over nine years, has produced an astonishing true-life whodunit set amidst the personalities, plots, and international intrigue of Wall Street. Having collected damning information on money manager Madoff-the respected co-founder of NASDAQ who ran the largest financial scam in history-since 1999, Markopolos's work as a chartered financial analyst and certified fraud examiner, aided by an industry journalist and two colleagues from his days as a derivatives portfolio manager, lays bare the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) as a tragically inept regulating agency that "didn't give a rat's ass about protecting investors," and seemed to consider Madoff "just another guy cutting some corners." Realizing he had not one but two powerful opponents-"Madoff and this nonfunctioning agency"-Markopolos refused to give up, despite fearing for his life and his family; accordingly, he transmits his team's determination and fascination in contagious detail. The hows and whys of Madoff's eventual arrest, Markopolos's subsequent appearances before Congress, and the carnival of press coverage makes a satisfying conclusion to this strange epic; Markopolos also includes complete documentation of his formal submissions to the SEC, plus his recommendations for much-needed reform at the agency.

April 1, 2010
Financial analyst Markopolos chanced upon one of the biggest financial frauds in history in late 1999 when his firm asked him to duplicate the returns of a wildly successful hedge fund run by esteemed Wall Street financier Bernard Madoff. After trying to reverse engineer Madoff's investment strategy, Markopolos concluded that the fund must be a fraud. Markopolos's book is about his decade-long obsession with Madoff's fraud and his frustrations as he tried to get the authorities to intervene in what turned out to be a $50 billion Ponzi scheme. He reserves his harshest criticism for the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which he says appeared to be nonfunctional. He recounts his celebrity after Madoff's exposure and includes recommendations for strengthening the expertise and capabilities of the SEC. One of his most astute observations is that the venality of those profiting from Madoff as investors or agents was a major factor in blinding them to the likelihood of something being amiss. VERDICT Likely to be in high demand, this angry account will please readers specifically interested in Markopolos' s role as a Madoff whistleblower. However, it falls short of being a full explanation of the Madoff fraud. A good book on a similar theme is Cliff Stoll's popular 1990 title, "The Cuckoo's Egg: Tracking a Spy Through the Maze of Computer Espionage".Lawrence Maxted, Gannon Univ. Lib., Erie, PA

Copyright 2010 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.