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Go Home The Wacky Hero Of The Madoff Scandal

THE PLANK FEBRUARY 5, 2009

The Wacky Hero Of The Madoff Scandal

BY EVE FAIRBANKS

If you didn't catch TV clips or a write-up of Harry Markopolos, the dorky derivatives whiz who saw through Bernie Madoff's scheme, testifying before Congress yesterday, read Dana Milbank's sketch of the hearing here. Representatives on Paul Kanjorski's capital markets subcommittee had been warned that Markopolos was "frail" and "nervous" and were told to go easy on him, but that couldn't have been more hilariously far from the truth. He was right out of Dragnet. A couple highlights:

When he spoke, it was in the vocabulary of a man who had watched a lot of detective movies. 
He offered to wear "a disguise, as I was trained to in the Army,"
and do undercover work for the Securities and Exchange Commission "and
have no one know where I was, except my wife, and I would have no
contact with my family during this time."

Why the cloak and dagger? Some of Madoff's money "came from the
Russian mob and the Latin American drug cartels," Markopolos explained.
"If he would have known my name and he knew that we had a team tracking
him, I didn't think I was long for this world."...

Markopolos said he remains blacklisted in the financial industry. "I've crossed the Rubicon," he said. "I can never go back."

Photo: Getty Images

--Eve Fairbanks

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13 comments

Undercover work at for the Securities and Exchange Commission?  Somebody get CBS on the horn - I've got their next hot prime time procedural drama!

- adaglas

February 5, 2009 at 12:36pm

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Sherman Skolnick has been reincarnated!

- Lymon1

February 5, 2009 at 12:39pm

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Well, sometimes even whacko paranoids have enemies.

Hey adaglas, I have the tag line for the show. Markos: He enforces the security in the SEC.

- blackton

February 5, 2009 at 12:49pm

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What a terrific story!

Markopolos wants Michael Chiklis to play him in the movie, but methinks we're in the land of Hanks, Clooney et al. Then there's the no-less-juicy role of Madoff; can Philip Seymour Hoffman run a Ponzi scheme? What about the wife? A thankless role, but she can't over-act. Laura Linney? Then you've got his primary contact at NY SEC--corrupt? Not corrupt? Josh Brolin? Obviously you want Lauren Bacall in a scene-stealer as a dowager with all her eggs in Madoff's basket.

Who directs?

- williamyard

February 5, 2009 at 12:54pm

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He's exactly the kind of guy we want at SEC, because the U.S. financial system is a weapon of mass destruction run by crazed warlords.

- ironyroad

February 5, 2009 at 12:54pm

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Somehow reminds me of Larry Bud Melman.  

- gwolfjr

February 5, 2009 at 12:59pm

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Harry Markopolos is having his fifteen minutes of fame. And he deserves it, too. His eccentricities are delightful. Thank you, Eve, for this post.

- liberal reformer

February 5, 2009 at 1:00pm

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If I were on staff at TNR, I'd be careful about casually throwing around the word "dork" - glass houses being notoriously brittle and all.  

- Lityerses

February 5, 2009 at 1:20pm

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what Lit said. Making fun of other people's looks and manner can be a(n Edith) Prickly business

- teplukhin2you

February 5, 2009 at 2:04pm

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Lityerses, your complaint only applies if one uses the word "dork" as a pejorative. I think it's pretty clear that Eve uses the word as a term of affection.

Anyway:

"In the American financial system, the people are represented by two equally important groups: The whistleblowers who uncover crimes, and the federal regulators who ignore the offenders. These are their stories." CHUNK-CHUNK

- rhubarbs

February 5, 2009 at 2:13pm

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Yes, what Rhubarbs said, dorky = endearingly earnest, serious. the way I used the word probably does say something about me, though. EF

- Eve Fairbanks

February 5, 2009 at 2:20pm

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Barb: You caught it dead on, as Eve just affirmed. And Eve - you are the most charming dork there ever was.

- liberal reformer

February 5, 2009 at 3:18pm

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Really?    "Wacky" in the title.  An oversize closeup photo exhibiting his 5 o'clock shadow, brown doe eyes, and comb-over taken at a moment when he's attentively focused his gaze upward in anticipation of the next question from the committee. Referring to him as a "dorky whiz." Saying he was straight out of Dragnet, and thus, an anachronism.  

I dunno.  I'll give you that "dork" can be a term of endearment amongst fellow dorks, nerds, and geeks.  But it seemed to me to be ridicule akin to the type he probably received from the SEC.

He's a serious man working on serious stuff.  In true Dragnet style, let's just have the facts.  

- Lityerses

February 5, 2009 at 5:44pm

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