take the Greek out of the restaurant,” Markopolos said, “but you can’t take the restaurant out of the Greek.” His first job in finance was as an over-the-counter trader
with Makefield Securities, a Philadelphia-area brokerage firm in which his father owned a quarter interest. He started on Oct. 19, 1987 —Black Monday, when stock markets crashed worldwide —and left the following June to work at Darien Capital Management, a hedge fund in Greenwich, Conn. Three years later, he joined Rampart Investment Management Com- pany, in Boston, as a derivatives portfolio manager. Markopolos also continued to serve in the Army Reserve,
but finally left in 1995 rather than go to Bosnia as part of “a mission I didn’t believe in at all,” he said. “The president at the time said it was a one-year mission, and I knew that was total bullshit, and I don’t tolerate bullshit.” Other than that, it was a great 17 years. “I liked the travel,” Markopolos said. “I liked the exciting things, the excellent training. If you want to learn how to lead men and women, there’s no better place
On_the_Web
For more information about Harry Markopolosand his investigation of Bernie Madoff—including his reports to the SEC and his testimony before Congress— visitwww.noonewouldlisten.com. To watch a “60 Minutes” reportaboutMarkopolos, visit http://bit.ly/U3DLH.
than the military.…You’re basically giving Uncle Sam a blank check payable with your life, and so you’re meeting some of the finest men and women, and you have the privilege to lead them. That’s a good leadership laboratory.” He enrolled at Boston College,where he earned amaster’s
degree in financewhile continuing at Rampart, eventuallywork- ing hisway up to become the firm’s chief investment officer. Thiswas going to be his life, until one day in 1999when Frank Casey, aRampartmarketing representative, gave himcopies of revenue statements from a hedge fund thatwas earning great returns from a firm calledMadoff Investment Securities. Amazing returns, really. Almost too amazing to be true.
When Harry Met Bernie “All I can say is, it took me five minutes to figure it out,” Markopolos said. “It was plain as day to me.…[Madoff’s] portfolios had so many holes in them. His strategy would have required him to pick stocks that only went up or stayed the same, but never went down.Well, I knew that no one in recorded human history had ever been able to achieve that, so that was pretty glaring. That was only, what, a minute into the investigation. “The second thing I noticed was, his performance chart
went up at a 45-degree angle, and I know 45-degree angles do not exist in finance. They only exist in high-school geometry. And the third thing I noticed in about five minutes was, over 96 percent of his months were positive. That never occurs in real life.…Those three things in five minutes, you just knew.”