'Chasing Madoff': Harry Markopolos Documentary Reveals Ponzi Schemer Investigation

All told, Harry Markopolos would rather not be the star of this new documentary. Not in 2011. If he had his way, his big film moment would have come a decade ago.

But here he is, featured in the upcoming film, "Chasing Madoff."

The investment manager turned financial investigator, whose tireless research uncovered the Bernie Madoff ponzi scheme, the biggest such scheme in American history, insists that he was ignored by the SEC and other government officials for years despite his massive catalog of evidence.

A suburban Boston man who began researching Madoff's incredible profits after receiving an assignment from his boss, he railed against the government in SEC hearings following Madoff's $50 billion collapse in 2008, saying the agency's employees "proved to be a systemic disappointment, and lead me to conclude that the S.E.C. securities lawyers, if only through their investigative ineptitude and financial illiteracy, colluded to maintain large frauds such as the one to which Madoff later confessed."

Markopolos even submitted an official report to the SEC in 2005, titled, quite bluntly, "The World's Largest Hedge Fund Is A Fraud."

He shunned the limelight (though he did release a book in 2010 detailing his struggles and ultimate failure to prevent the collapse), saying in 2009 that Hollywood would "just add in sex and violence."

Finally, he's sharing his story in the documentary, which director Jeff Prosserman describes thusly:

Chasing Madoff is a non-fiction narrative film that reveals the shocking true story of Harry Markopolos, securities analyst turned vigilante investigator, and his team in their hunt to bring a covert network of financial predators to justice. Markopolos risked everything for the truth only to be ignored for nearly a decade. Facing incalculable personal risk and fighting against seemingly insurmountable obstacles, this is the classic story of the lone man who stood up for what he believed in. As the team describes their harrowing journey, the story reveals the banksters that continue to feed on the public, the lack of government oversight, and the lack of ethics in the financial services industry.

WATCH:

Comments

[Penomee]

12:25 AM on 08/23/2011

The horror of Mr. Madoff's deception and wounding particularly of the Jewish community, which trusted him, is a national wound. I was so moved personally that I wrote and produced a play, "Bernie Madoff in Hell," which was successfully produced at the San Francisco Theatre Festival almost a year ago. Comments are invited: what contribution can the arts make to the healing of a person, or a community? I would be delighted to see this play published on the Huffington Post so the deeper wounds can be understood and possibly helped to heal with empathy for those left unprotected against predators like Mr. Madoff.
Dr. Kari Ann Owen, Ph.D.
San Francisco Bay Area
Please see www.kariannowen.com and the essays and plays which are pleas for and expressions of empathy.

[Troyounce]

03:15 PM on 07/02/2011

Come on Harry, where are the other scandals you promised us??

http://www.nypost.com/p/pagesix/item_z15tVmVCG9Kp2Otl6vZStK

[Madmac]

09:18 AM on 06/29/2011

I'd love to see this film when it's released. At the rate films go so far, this might be the best drama of 2011.

[jennyjen]

12:12 AM on 08/27/2011

Can't wait to see it. Trouble is I will have to wait because I am in the middle of the country - not on the right or left coast.

Think I will go find the interview he did with Jon Stewart while I wait.

Good news this week - it looks they will be able to pay the victims 50 cents on the dollar. Favorite new word - clawback.

[sixtoes]

03:34 AM on 06/29/2011

"America's Biggest Criminal" is a guy who stole money from rich people. Ain't it the truth.

[JoeDoorman]

08:26 PM on 06/28/2011

"It's SEC Fault!" .... really?
I'm sure the SEC is understaffed and incompetent.

But I blame the NYTs, WSJ, etc... and all the financial newpapers.
Manhattan is a small place... you can walk from Madoff's blgd. to the NYTs blgd. in five mins.

With all the financial news reporting in NYC, not one questioned how Madoff made his money?

We also like to blame the victims of not questioning a "GOOD THING", when collecting consistent returns in troubled markets. Where was the WALL STREET JOURNAL!!!! That has to fill an entire newspaper everyday with business analysis.

The media was too busy calling Madoff a genius.

I hold the media... and only the media accountable... they knew what Madoff was doing... how could they not? There experts!

They just didn't report it... probably because a lot of their friends were making a killing.

[netman714]

11:04 AM on 06/29/2011

Hell of an opinion - the journalists ar responsible for not better reporting the story?
You must make a hell of a doorman to be able to make up stories like this.
The investigators at the SEC, whose job it is to check this stuff didn't bother, regulators were told to look the other way and the people making these impossible returns had no responsibility?
It's all the journalists fault?
Hell of a story - wish I could come listen to more of your "fantasies."

[SamEllison]

05:56 PM on 06/28/2011

another unposted comment?

[josephXY]

05:23 PM on 06/28/2011

It's not just the failure of the SEC. The other big failure as 'watchdogs' were the
media. The trailer even mentions that some story got killed.
The media paradoxically were always great in not knowing or understanding
crucial matters, apart from being complicit in many cases as long as possible.
http://rinf.com/alt-news/media-news/where-was-media-when-sub-prime-disaster-unfolded/2854/

[SamEllison]

05:02 PM on 06/28/2011

All you Obama-haters out there get a life.
Or you will be wasting the next six years of your present life.
Get over it!

[jeffp26]

03:27 PM on 06/28/2011

The SEC was a joke back then, and it's a joke now. Mary Schapiro is all smoke and mirrors. Her entire career, during which she became ludicrously wealthy, she was paid to run organizations designed to fool investors into thinking someone was protecting them.

I knew Obama was a fool, and a pretender, the day he appointed her to run the SEC. And I was, unfortunately, correct.

[Aries Warrior]

04:10 PM on 06/28/2011

Mary is tight with the tribe.

[montanese]

08:38 AM on 06/29/2011

She's a Cleveland fan?

[FearlessFreep]

04:50 PM on 06/28/2011

Obama has an oddly consistent tendency to choose the wrong man. (Rick Warren, anyone?)

[Madmac]

09:27 AM on 06/29/2011

Freeper please. At least he didn't pick someone who ran the horsey show to run FEMA. By and large President Obama has chosen (when the gobags didn't secret hold them) very competent people to key positions in government.

A Nobel Prize Winning Nuclear Physicist as Energy Secretary?
A Nobel Prize Winning Economist For Fed Reserve Governor (Forced to withdraw due to gobag objections including Richard Shelby' criticized Diamond, saying he "lacks monetary policy experience." ). He actually said it with a straight face.

[Conservative Charlie]

03:19 PM on 06/28/2011

Madoff? porno? Madoff? porno? The investigators must have been stumped by so many choices and so little time, no wonder it took years to catch him.

[northstar11]

03:18 PM on 06/28/2011

how many other harry's were there and are there, who are still being ignored ???

[Trevor Lahey]

03:13 PM on 06/28/2011

Can't wait to see this.

[dongarb]

02:48 PM on 06/28/2011

Well to be fair to the SEC investigators, it's very hard for them to know which criminal rackets and giant frauds they're supposed to be interrupting and which ones they're supposed to be aiding and abetting. So naturally they would err on the side of caution and just let them all continue unhindered!

[Madmac]

09:20 AM on 06/29/2011

Plus they don't want to screw up their next job opportunities

[netman714]

11:07 AM on 06/29/2011

You forgot to mention that when the investigators report there may be an issue, they get re-assigned. Not a good strategy if you want to keep your paycheck.

[Quinxy von Besiex]

04:48 PM on 06/28/2011

more spam