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$$ Book Review "No One Would Listen"

From the man who discovered Madoff….10 years before Madoff’s sons turned him in…

From Amazon:

No One Would Listen is the exclusive story of the Harry Markopolos-lead investigation into Bernie Madoff and his $65 billion Ponzi scheme. While a lot has been written about Madoff’s scam, few actually know how Markopolos and his team-affectionately called “The Fox Hounds” by Markopolos himself, uncovered what Madoff was doing years before this financial disaster reached its pinnacle. Unfortunately, no one listened, until the damage of the world’s largest financial fraud ever was irreversible.

Since that time, Markopolos openly has testified and questioned the enforcement and fraud investigation capabilities of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), shared a sliver of this page-turning story with 60 Minutes, and become perhaps the world’s most visible and insightful whistleblower on fraud and conflicts of interest in financial markets.

Throughout the book, Markopolos and his Fox Hounds tell their first-hand story of investigating Madoff-with the help of bestselling author David Fisher. They explain how they discovered the fraud, and then how they provided credible and detailed evidence to major newspapers and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) many times between 2000 and 2008, only to have his warnings ignored repeatedly by the SEC.

  • Provides a firsthand account of how Markopolos uncovered Madoff’s scam years before it actually fell apart
  • Discusses how the SEC missed the red flags raised by Markopolos
  • Describes how Madoff was enabled by investors and fiduciaries alike
  • The only book to tell the story of Madoff’s scam and the SEC’s failings by those who saw both first hand
  • Despite repeated written and verbal warnings to the SEC by Harry Markopolos, Bernie Madoff was allowed to continue his operations. No One Would Listen paints a vivid portrait of Markopolos and his determined team of financial sleuths, and what impact they will have on financial markets and financial regulation for decades

My two cents? Great content that would have been better in the hands of a professional author. The Markopolos/Madoff affair follows a similar theme as “Confidence Game” and “Fooling Some of The People All of The Time“. Indifferent/incompetent regulators/investigators let a fraud go undetected/unpunished for years.

Now, both the Einhorn/Ackman book have the added twist they both were actually investigated by the SEC/NY AG’s and had their reputations dragged through the mud.

Markopolos, fortunately for him had none of that. He was simply ignored. A reoccurring theme throughout the book is that Markopolos feared for his life though no evidence/proof is ever produced it was actually necessary. It seems wholly based on a single incident in which a Boston broker is assaulted by an (alleged) Union member.

The constant reference to his “fearing for his life” despite any actual threats/attempts strikes one as a bit dramatic and for me detracted from the story after a while. I have no reason to doubt he may have felt that way at the time, I’m just wondering how realistic it was as his problem was not being publicly out there as the guy trying to “bring down Madoff” but that he was blatantly ignored for nearly 10 years.  Anyway…..

The true merit of the book is in the depiction of the SEC/Forbes/WSJ and every other financial regulator/press outlet. One has to assume none of them actually read Markopolos’ analysis or one has to think more questions would have come to light. If nothing else, a media outlet that ran the story would have garnered much attention and that attention may have “shaken the trees” enough for other to express doubt in Madoff’s operations. It seems that none of them wanted Madoff to be guilty so they ignored any evidence to the contrary. Either that or they simply could not understand what Markopolos was saying. I’ll give them a pass and say it was the former.

For those reasons alone the book is worth a read. If you can get past some of the melodrama, the content of the book on the actual subjects, Madoff/feeder funds/SEC etc. is quite good…

Website: http://www.noonewouldlisten.com/

Facebook: http://facebook.com/harrymarkopolos