No One Would Listen

I just finished Harry Markopolos' book, No One Would Listen, which chronicles his almost 10 year investigation of Bernie Madoff. Here's a guy who worked as an options trader who was asked by his boss to reverse engineer what Madoff was doing, and in the process discovers the biggest Ponzi scheme in US history. So what does Markopolos do? After assembling a small team of investigators he brings the report, titled "The World's Largest Hedge Fund is a Fraud," to the SEC, who subsequently accuse him of just wanting to collect the reward! This is why Madoff was allowed to continue for so long--the SEC was so profoundly incompetent that they couldn't find a book at a Barnes and Noble.

One of the things that Markopolos said that struck me was his sense of fairness and justice. He wanted to expose Madoff because he knew that innocent people were getting ripped off--and this from a finance guy. It must be a Greek thing--there is nothing that motivates me more than to right a wrong.