Madoff Whistleblower Says He Was SEC’s ‘Doormat,’ And SEC’s Staff Are ‘Idiots’

Harry Markopolos, who tried for years to tell the SEC that Bernard Madoff was running a scam, was interviewed in yesterday’s New York Times magazine section by Deborah Solomon. Markopolos had a lot to say, including that he was the SEC’s “doormat” for nine years, that Christopher Cox became the SEC’s chair “because he wasn’t going to do his job,” that the current SEC staff are “a bunch of idiots” who will “never find the frauds on Wall Street” because they are securities lawyers who “don’t have the math background,” and that the SEC doesn’t hire finance people because the SEC is “poisoned by lawyers.” 

Markopolos was interviewed in this week’s magazine section because he has a new book coming out: “No One Would Listen.” Indeed.
 
The interview is available at http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/28/magazine/28fob-q4-t.html?scp=1&sq=markopolos&st=cse.