Madoff whistleblower to speak at UW Spring Ethics Symposium

Harry Markopolos, author of “No One Would Listen,” will give the keynote address as part of the Spring Ethics Symposium, sponsored by the Howard Carver Ethics and Professionalism Program at the Wisconsin School of Business.

Markopolos says he realized that Bernard Madoff’s investment strategy was an obvious fraud within five minutes, but it took him almost 10 years of repeated red flag waving and covert communication to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to get the world to see it.

Markopolos’ remarks will be from 6:15 to 7:15 p.m. Thursday, May 2 in the Morgridge Auditorium inside Grainger Hall, 975 University Ave., Madison. A question-and-answer session will follow his talk.

A 17-year veteran of the Army Reserve and National Guard, where he achieved the rank of Major, Markopolos earned his Chartered Financial Analysts designation in 1996 and his Certified Fraud Examiner’s designation in 2008. He served as president and CEO of the 4,000-member Boston Security Analysts Society from 2002 to 2003.

Markopolos decided to leave the industry in August 2004 to pursue fraud investigations fulltime against Fortune 500 companies in the financial services and healthcare industries. He brings fraud cases to the U.S. Department of Justice and the Internal Revenue Service under existing whistleblower bounty programs. The Madoff investigation was his first fraud case.