Harry Markopolos
American accountant who exposed the Madoff investment scandal
Why this is trending
Interest in “Harry Markopolos” spiked on Wikipedia on 2026-02-24.
Categorised under Arts & Culture, this article fits a familiar pattern. wt.cat.arts.2
By monitoring millions of daily Wikipedia page views, GlyphSignal helps you spot cultural moments as they happen and understand the stories behind the numbers.
Key Takeaways
- Markopolos (born October 22, 1956) is an American forensic accounting and financial fraud investigator and former securities industry executive best known for initially discovering Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme in the late 1990s.
- In 2000, 2001, and 2005, Markopolos alerted the U.
- Madoff was finally revealed to be a fraud in December 2008, when his sons contacted the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
- In 2010, Markopolos's book on uncovering the Madoff fraud, No One Would Listen: A True Financial Thriller , was published.
- Education and career Markopolos attended Roman Catholic schools, graduating from Cathedral Preparatory School in Erie, Pennsylvania, in 1974.
Harry M. Markopolos (born October 22, 1956) is an American forensic accounting and financial fraud investigator and former securities industry executive best known for initially discovering Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme in the late 1990s.
From 1999 to 2008, Markopolos uncovered evidence that suggested that Madoff's wealth management business was a fraudulent Ponzi scheme. In 2000, 2001, and 2005, Markopolos alerted the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of his views, supplying supporting documents, but each time the SEC ignored him or gave his evidence only a cursory investigation. Madoff was finally revealed to be a fraud in December 2008, when his sons contacted the Federal Bureau of Investigation. After admitting to operating the largest private Ponzi scheme in history, Madoff was sentenced in 2009 to 150 years in prison.
In 2010, Markopolos's book on uncovering the Madoff fraud, No One Would Listen: A True Financial Thriller, was published. Markopolos has criticized the SEC for failing to discover the Madoff fraud despite repeated tips, and for failing to investigate properly the larger companies it supervised.
Education and career
Markopolos attended Roman Catholic schools, graduating from Cathedral Preparatory School in Erie, Pennsylvania, in 1974. He received an undergraduate degree in Business Administration from Loyola College in Maryland in 1981, and a Master of Science in Finance from Boston College in 1997. He is a CFA charterholder, and a Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE).
He began his career on Wall Street in 1987 as a broker with Makefield Securities, a small Erie-based brokerage owned by Barry C. Hixon. In 1988, he obtained a job with Darien Capital Management in Darien, Connecticut, as an assistant portfolio manager.
Content sourced from Wikipedia under CC BY-SA 4.0
