Harry Markopolos Character Analysis

Harry Markopolos is an independent fraud investigator known for his role as whistleblower in the Bernie Madoff securities fraud scandal. Markopolos began investigating Madoff’s wealth management business in 1998 and found evidence that Madoff was operating a massive Ponzi scheme. Beginning in 2000, Markopolos repeatedly presented his findings to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), who either ignored Markopolos’s concerns or failed to invest them thoroughly. In 2008, nearly a decade after Markopolos first brought his concerns to the SEC, Madoff’s sons turned their father in to the FBI. Markopolos testified before Congress in 2009, and Madoff was sentenced to 150 years in prison. Gladwell considers Markopolos’s skepticism to be unusual—an attribute that makes him something of a contemporary Holy Fool whose position on the outskirts of society gives him the ability to speak aloud the inconvenient truths which nobody else is willing to admit.