No One Would Listen: A True Financial Thriller

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No One Would Listen: A True Financial Thriller

by Harry Markopolos, David Einhorn (Foreword by)

3.83 of 5 stars 3.83 · rating details · 809 ratings · 188 reviews

Harry Markopolos and his team of financial sleuths discuss first-hand how they cracked the Madoff Ponzi scheme"No One Would Listen" is the thrilling story of how the Harry Markopolos, a little-known number cruncher from a Boston equity derivatives firm, and his investigative team uncovered Bernie Madoff's scam years before it made headlines, and how they desperately tried...more

ebook, 304 pages

Published January 29th 2010 by John Wiley & Sons (first published 2009)

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Jan 08, 2012 Joan rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: financial students should have to read this!

Shelves: adult-books, american-history, money-related

Markopolos took on City Hall quadrupled, because everyone was essentially on the other side because no one could believe such an incredibly gigantic scheme could have been kept secret for so long. Journalists didn't take on the story for that reason, as well as lack of understanding of the subjects involved. The SEC was pretty much in bed with the people they were "regulating" and also considered Markopolos merely an minor competitor who was out to get rid of Madoff that way. There was also no o...more

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Apr 14, 2013 Angie Martin rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: general-social

Wow! What an interesting book! Every has heard of the Madoff scandal but I had no idea of the magnitude of the fraud and how blatantly the SEC ignored Markopolos' tips. Although he discusses the financial/trading world and I didn't understand alot of the terminology and products, I didn't need to have a MBA in finance to understand it and get what he was saying. I do think that Markopolis does have a tendency to exaggerate certain aspects of the investigation (worrying about threats against his...more

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Mar 31, 2011 erin rated it 3 of 5 stars

Interesting but terribly written

I was curious to learn more about this story, and this book did the trick, but the whole time I was frustrated by the poor writing. So many "really"s, "very"s, and things like, "They are so lame, they couldn't ______ a ______ in ______" (catch/cold/winter, find/steer/a stampede, find/steak/an Outback, find/batter/a batter's box, etc.). Markopolos repeats stories and tells over and over his reasoning for various choices he made. It feels like he is filling in space...more

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Mar 28, 2013 Don rated it 3 of 5 stars

Prior to reading this book, I was familiar with the inability of The Securities & Exchange Commission ("S.E.C.") to effectively regulate the financial markets. The term to describe this malaise is "Deep Capture" - "a phenomenon whereby industries take control of, or 'capture', regulators who are supposed to oversee them." (see http://www.deepcapture.com ).

Harry Markopolos weaves an interesting story, spanning more than a decade, about his persistent attempts to persuade The S.E.C. to read hi...more

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Jan 27, 2013 Gabby rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction, finance, faves

How on earth does it happen that a Ponzi scheme of the size and scope of the Madoff creation goes undetected for so long in spite of the regulatory agencies in place to keep such a thing from happening much less sustain itself for such a long period of time? That's what Harry Markopolos explains in this book. I cannot say that I understood all of the explanations outlined here, but I don't think that's the fault of Markopolos. He tries to explain some pretty sophisticated and complex principles...more

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Jul 05, 2012 Terri rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012, audio-books, nonfiction

This is a terrible book. I have respect for the fact that Harry Markopolos and his team figured out that Madoff was running a ponzi scheme in 1998. That's impressive. I think the process by which they came to this conclusion is very interesting. The book, however, is poorly written. Markolpolos's hyperbole makes many chapters hard going and his many digressions (about offering to buy his wife a boob job for an engagement gift or about a friend's sailing accident) bog down the story and feel like...more

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Apr 07, 2012 Sher rated it 5 of 5 stars

Everyone knows what a ?*&% / Bernie Madoff was, but how many people know that most of the damage he did could have been prevented by a simple phone call from the SEC to verify his trades several years before, and some 55 billion dollars before, his collapse? The incompetence of the SEC is legend. They simply refused to even consider so much as asking a question about the legality of what Madoff was doing. The question that comes to my mind is what WERE they doing with their time, if it wasn'...more Everyone knows what a ?*&% / Bernie Madoff was, but how many people know that most of the damage he did could have been prevented by a simple phone call from the SEC to verify his trades several years before, and some 55 billion dollars before, his collapse? The incompetence of the SEC is legend. They simply refused to even consider so much as asking a question about the legality of what Madoff was doing. The question that comes to my mind is what WERE they doing with their time, if it wasn't investigating things like this? Wasn't that their job description? Although Madoff was the biggest fish, there were many other crooks that they also ignored. Maybe a better word would be 'protected' because that is what they were doing, protecting the bad guys from their investors - the exact opposite of what they had been hired to do.

Having once been Securities licensed myself, this book was all the more interesting to me. I know a little of what goes on in the world of finance, and in fact was burned myself to the point that I just don't want anything to do with it. That is probably not a good place to be either, but it is tough to have some dishonest person effect the quality of the rest of your life. Luckily I didn't lose everything as so many of these investors did, but I will be paying for my mistake of trusting someone who seemed so good and who turned out to be a crook for the rest of my life. I wept when I heard the stories of some of these people. Hell is too good a place for people like Bernie Madoff.

This book reads like a novel. I recommend it to anyone who has an interest in finance, or in bringing bad guys to justice. It was ultimately satisfying to see that justice was done. This country owes a huge debt to Harry Markopolos and his team (who were never paid for their work in bringing Madoff down) for hanging in there when it would have been so easy to quit. Thanks to them, the whole SEC is restructured and re-staffed. I hope the people at the SEC today are doing their jobs the way they should be done. If they are, things like this should never be able to happen again.(less)

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Jan 12, 2012 Victoria_Grossack Grossack rated it 3 of 5 stars

Worthwhile read, showing how difficult it is to try to be a whistleblower. I want to point out that Markopolos was not particularly successful in his whistleblowing – he never got the SEC to take him seriously, and the journalists he interested in the subject either ignored him or wrote pieces that were virtually ignored. Shoot, Markopolos couldn’t even make his bosses take him seriously! Madoff only failed because his scheme finally imploded.

Some reviewers have complained that Markopolos was to...more

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Dec 18, 2011 Ilya rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: economics

Harry Markopolos is a financial analyst. In 1999 he learned about a hedge fund managing about $8 billion of assets that delivered consistent profits of about 1% a month, almost without regard to the stock market's swings. The fund was run by Bernard Madoff, a former chairman of NASDAQ who also owned a brokerage. Asked to replicate the hedge fund's success, Markopolos realized that it made no sense: the strategy the fund claimed to use could not possibly deliver these results. Markopolos conclude...more Harry Markopolos is a financial analyst. In 1999 he learned about a hedge fund managing about $8 billion of assets that delivered consistent profits of about 1% a month, almost without regard to the stock market's swings. The fund was run by Bernard Madoff, a former chairman of NASDAQ who also owned a brokerage. Asked to replicate the hedge fund's success, Markopolos realized that it made no sense: the strategy the fund claimed to use could not possibly deliver these results. Markopolos concluded that either Madoff's brokerage firm was front-running, which is a kind of illegal insider trading done by stock brokers, or more likely, these results were bogus, and the whole hedge fund was a giant Ponzi scheme. Markopolos complained to the SEC several times over the course of the 2000s; all but the last of these complaints were ignored; after the last one, the agency interviewed Madoff and found almost nothing wrong. In the meantime, Makropolos gained further confidence in the hedge fund being a Ponzi scheme: it claimed to trade in more options than existed in the first place; its alleged counterparties had no record of trading with it. Through Markopolos's efforts, articles questioning the truthfulness of the Madoff's hedge fund appeared in a hedge fund trade magazine and in Barron's; no one in the government took notice. In December 2008 Madoff confessed to his sons that he was running a Ponzi scheme, they reported him to the authorities, a la Pavlik Morozov, and he was arrested, tried and sentenced to 150 years in Federal prison. Markopolos's name came to light, and the story of him repeatedly warning the authorities and them ignoring him made him a hero of the day. Originally the size of the fraud was estimated at $65 billion, but most of it was fictitious; in 2009 it was put at somewhat less than $20 billion, which still makes it the biggest Ponzi scheme in history. Some of those whose investments in Madoff's fund were wiped out were innocent banks, pension funds, charities. However, some of the European individual investors Markopolos talked to thought that Madoff was front-running, which they knew was illegal; I think that the proverb "You can't cheat an honest man" applies to these people. How did the SEC prove so incompetent? Makropolos says that on the one hand, it consists of underpaid lawyers who know too little about the industry they are supposed to be regulating, and on the other hand, it is too much in bed with the securities industry: many of its employees go on to careers in the industry after a short stint at the agency, and they don't want to tick off their future employers. Whatever lessons the SEC learned from the Madoff case, it has not fired any employees who failed to recognize the fraud. (less)

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Aug 06, 2011 Margaret rated it 5 of 5 stars

This is an amazing book and is a must read for anyone who invests in financial instruments, who works with or for financial companies or who just wants to know how well our regulatory agencies work (not well).

While the book is about complex financial accounting, Harry Markopolis has written a page turner book about his ten year attempt to warn the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) about Bernie Madoff and his ever growning Ponzi scheme. You don't need to understand split-strike financial...more

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Apr 29, 2011 Colleen Clark rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: financial-crisis-economic

Another look into the financial crisis.

In 1999, about 12 years after he started his career as a broker in Boston, Harry Markopolos, a self-described quant, learned about a money manager in New York who steadily produced a net return of about 1-2% per month. Markopolos and a colleague immediately got suspicious about how anyone could turn out steady returns month after month. Madoff had a sterling reputation so everybody just assumed he was just very smart.

The firm that Markopolos and friend were...more

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Apr 27, 2011 Lumpenprole rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2011, digital-media, economics, finance, law, politics

I suppose it was wise of Markopolos and his co-author to skimp on the heavy-duty mathematics and concentrate on the "thriller" part of "financial thriller." If I am at all representative of the common listener, he doubtless would have lost me with the former but kept me with the latter. Yet, the book also takes on a rather breathy Tom Clancy-ish tone I could have done without. Especially the almost bizarre way we get treated to his sense of being threatened, the rather weird claim that he would...more I suppose it was wise of Markopolos and his co-author to skimp on the heavy-duty mathematics and concentrate on the "thriller" part of "financial thriller." If I am at all representative of the common listener, he doubtless would have lost me with the former but kept me with the latter. Yet, the book also takes on a rather breathy Tom Clancy-ish tone I could have done without. Especially the almost bizarre way we get treated to his sense of being threatened, the rather weird claim that he would have personally sought out Madoff and bumped him off if his sense of threat rose to a certain level. We get that part, we get some murky claims about criminal elements invested in Madoff, but we never get offered tangible proof that (a) such elements had money with him, or (b) that Madoff was the sort to resort to violence. And like the little girl with the curl in her hair, people are either very, very good, or very very bad.

But the rest of the book is pure gravy, especially the painful testimony of the SEC before Congress, what I can only describe as utter incompetence documented again and again and again by the SEC at every level by anyone, barring one or two exceptions, who touched Markopolos's documentation. Who knew a roller-coaster ride could also be educational?

I cannot speak to the last section of the audio, where Markopolos makes a series of recommendations to reform the regulation of financial markets, though I must admit I'm a bit leery of the implied loss of national sovereignty with the international body he seems to think is needed. I mean the SEC does have limited powers, but even so had the laws on the books been enforced, mightn't that have been enough? (e.g. Madoff being caught in lies by SEC lawyers, which he was, and them doing nothing...when it could have been as much as a five year prison sentence.) I do like the idea of some sort of clearinghouse of information on investigations, past and present, both intra- and inter- agency. I also think a steel-toe boot needs to be administered to the baloney behind companies going "jurisdiction shopping," even I can see smell the stench on that one.

Good listen, but somehow I just can't bring myself to click on that 4th star. Call it a phobia for all things Tom Clancy-ish.

======

Actual ISBN: 9781441870506, but net nannies who run this place wouldn't let me enter it.
(less)

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Mar 16, 2011 Brian rated it 3 of 5 stars

Marcopolos still hadn't cooled down while writing this...and it suffers

It's totally understandable. He'd been investigating Madoff for about 10 years, frustrated and angered by the SEC's brushoffs, so it makes sense that he's still furious about the whole affair. Trouble is that it completely colors his writing, even the organization of the book. You can tell how angry he is by the tone of contempt he holds throughout. He could have polished this book much better, and used some sort of organizat...more Marcopolos still hadn't cooled down while writing this...and it suffers

It's totally understandable. He'd been investigating Madoff for about 10 years, frustrated and angered by the SEC's brushoffs, so it makes sense that he's still furious about the whole affair. Trouble is that it completely colors his writing, even the organization of the book. You can tell how angry he is by the tone of contempt he holds throughout. He could have polished this book much better, and used some sort of organizational scheme. Yes, it's largely chronological, but we hear many arguments repeated several times. We also hear his "SEC couldn't catch a cold in a freezer" type comments (my impression is that he compiled a list and made sure he worked every one of them into the text).

My other big criticism is his narrative style. Way too much time is spent on rant and complaint rather than actual narrative. This too is tied to his venting of decade-old frustration, but we'd learn a lot more and pay more attention if he stuck to the story.

I would also encourage readers to read his (2005?) submission to the SEC that he included as an attachment (at least in the Kindle version). I was a little shocked to see that the same style he employed in the book was used in his evidence for fraud. I'm actually a little less surprised that they didn't take it seriously when they read it (if they did), because he does come off a little scatterbrained, a lot incensed and not well organized. He could have done a much better job, especially given that he'd been working on it for several years at that point. The tone should've been much more professional (not to mention spellchecked), and he should have laid out his points more carefully, summarizing them up front so the full weight of the evidence could be felt at once. It reads more like a rant and you're drawn away from the evidence into concern about his temper.

All that said, it is a compelling story, albeit not well told. So I give it points just for how interesting the whole endeavor was, and how unlikely it was that anyone else had stepped forward. Makes me even more creeped out by what goes on in the financial world. Also reaffirmed my aim never to place my money in a hedge fund (if they even continue to exist).(less)

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Sep 03, 2010 getAbstract rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

When Harry Markopolos began his career in the securities industry, he applied his mathematical skills to the design of investment products. In particular, his bosses wanted him to create investment instruments that competed with those offered by financier Bernie Madoff. When Markopolos found that Madoff’s results were impossible to match, he suspected that Madoff was running a Ponzi scheme – not investing money, but paying each investor with cash from other investors. His suspicion led to an inv...more

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Aug 16, 2010 Nate rated it 3 of 5 stars

This was a very interesting read, especially if you are interested in what happened in the whole Madoff scandal. It's absolutely amazing to me that the Ponzi scheme could have gone on for as long as it did without being exposed. This really portrays how incompetent our government regulatory agencies are, especially the SEC. It was amazing to me that Markopolos had the entire thing figured out and contacted the SEC multiple times about Madoff without them doing anything. It's really crazy just ho...more

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Aug 09, 2010 Judy rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: listened-to

The author of this book tried for over ten years to get the SCE to investigate Bernie Madoff's investment firm, but with no results. Markopolos knew as early as 1991 that Madoff was running a huge Ponzi scheme. He put together solid documentation and presented it to several parties, from the SCE to investors, but no one paid any attention to him. By the time Madoff's empire collapsed in December 2008, he had scammed investors out of sixty-four BILLION dollars. Markopolos's efforts have resulted...more

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Jun 24, 2010 James rated it 2 of 5 stars

This should have been a good book, but the author is so repetative and egotistic that the 300+ pages should have been reduced to about 50.

The author fails to discuss quite a few interesting aspects of the case and leaves a person wondering about so many things.

After reading the book I went to Wikipedia and found much more interesting information with 5% of the words.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madoff_i...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recovery...

The quo...more

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Apr 28, 2010 rmn rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: financial-math-non-fiction

This is almost a must read for anyone interested in the alarming incompetence of the SEC or bureaucracy in general. It is the story of Harry Markopolos who in his spare time (and with the help of a few others) uncovered the biggest fraud in the history of the financial system, reported it to the proper authorities, and yet was shunned/ignored/blown off for years even though he was a very credible whistleblower and presented a strong case. The result of course was an extra $50B of losses for peop...more This is almost a must read for anyone interested in the alarming incompetence of the SEC or bureaucracy in general. It is the story of Harry Markopolos who in his spare time (and with the help of a few others) uncovered the biggest fraud in the history of the financial system, reported it to the proper authorities, and yet was shunned/ignored/blown off for years even though he was a very credible whistleblower and presented a strong case. The result of course was an extra $50B of losses for people swindled by Bernie Madoff.

The story is a first person narrative written by Markopolous and details what he found, when he found it, and whom he tried to contact. It is an amazing story of how one person paying attention has the ability to make a difference, how big government/institutions can have colossal failures, how the SEC was negligent on so many levels that the organization should be disbanded (though to be fair the new head of the SEC has come in swinging so far), and how the whole global financial system is a house of cards.

The criticism I have is that the book would have been much better had Markopolous found a ghost writer. It's not that he is a bad writer, but he writes like a financial analyst. Much of the book is repetitive and the story lacks a lyrical flow that an accomplished writer could have provided. Plus some of it is a bit overblown/ego driven, but to be fair, he did uncover the biggest fraud in the history of the financial system so I guess one should have an ego after that. Anyway, the plot is easy to follow and the book might serve as a period piece for years to come, highlighting the flaws in the financial system in the 2000s and how easy it was to manipulate.

That said, I do have just one very minor annoying complaint. Markopolous, who was head of the Boston Society of Security Analysts and who throughout the book claims his ethical ways, twice refers to himself as a Chartered Financial Analyst or a CFA. Having passed all three levels of the CFA tests and met the requirements, I can tell you the one archaic rule the CFA society drills in to you is that you are not "a CFA" or "a Chartered Financial Analyst," rather you are a "CFA Charterholder." CFA is not a noun. In fact, on the ethics portion of the exam they actually quiz you on that precise usage of the designation. So I found it exceptionally bizarre that someone who is writing a book about what a stickler for ethics and the rules he is and who is head of the Boston Society of Security Analysts, would get this wrong (This is from a CFA test study guide: "CFA" and "Chartered Financial Analyst" are to be used as adjectives, not as nouns or common names. In other words, it's improper to say, "I am one of three CFAs in our research department", or, "Today's speaker is a Chartered Financial Analyst". It's proper to say, "I am one of three CFA charterholders in the research department", or, "Today's speaker has earned the right to use the Chartered Financial Analyst designation".).

Nitpicking aside, if you have any interest in the financial system, government incompetence, or an underdog type story (though with no winners because the underdog is completely shunned), this is a good book for you.(less)

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Apr 10, 2010 Esther Bradley-detally rated it 5 of 5 stars

No One Would Listen, a True Financial thriller by Harry Markopolos is a gripper. Forget that I, a daughter of a municipal bond person, can't read the stock page, and this book is filled with discussions of derivatives, Ponzi Scheme (think Madoff), Harry Markopolos grips the reader to his account of discovering Bernie Madoff and his scheme which was ignored by the SEC and eventually grew to the size of $65 billion Ponzi scheme.

Markopolos is a wonderful writer, chatty, very intelligent, a math gee...more

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Apr 03, 2010 Kathleen Hagen added it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2010-audio-books, 2010-nonfiction

No One Would Listen: a True Financial Thriller, by Harry Markopolos, narrated by Scott Brick, with people from the story reading their own e-mails, produced by Audible Inc. and downloaded from audible.com.

This is the story of Harry Markopolos, who became obsessed with uncovering Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme. It started initially because Bernie’s figures looked so good that Harry’s company wanted him to come up with something that would bring in the same numbers. He kept telling his company that...more

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Jul 26, 2010 Lobstergirl rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: business-finance

I already knew much of the Madoff story, having read articles and a book on it, and watched Harry Markopolos's congressional testimony. But No One Would Listen was still a gripping read, as Markopolos and his "team" of fellow derivatives experts tried to figure out over the span of a decade how Madoff's secret hedge fund was getting the returns it was getting with almost zero volatility, and tried repeatedly and unsuccessfully to get the Securities and Exchange Commission to pay attention. Marko...more I already knew much of the Madoff story, having read articles and a book on it, and watched Harry Markopolos's congressional testimony. But No One Would Listen was still a gripping read, as Markopolos and his "team" of fellow derivatives experts tried to figure out over the span of a decade how Madoff's secret hedge fund was getting the returns it was getting with almost zero volatility, and tried repeatedly and unsuccessfully to get the Securities and Exchange Commission to pay attention. Markopolos's writing style is pleasant and engaging and the story really does unfold like a thriller, albeit one where everyone is a geek wearing pocket protectors. He is susceptible to a certain folksiness: "If blank looks were dollar bills I would have walked out of that room a rich man." (On his first meeting with an SEC lawyer.) On his Chinese wife: "We got engaged the old-fashioned way. She gave me a deadline and told me if we weren't engaged by that date I was history." (Following this is a silicone breast implants anecdote which should have been edited out.) Toward the end of the book in particular, the metaphors are laid on fast and thick: the SEC couldn't find ice cream in a Dairy Queen....couldn't find a batter in the batter's box....couldn't find a steer in a stampede....couldn't find their asses in the dark with two hands (maybe that came from a member of Congress)...

In a book filled with astonishing and dismaying revelations, two rather small but significant ones struck me: 1) the SEC had no publications budget. If employees wanted subscriptions to the Wall Street Journal or anything else, they had to pay for it themselves. And the WSJ would be among the cheapest publications they might want; hedge fund newsletters, like the one which ran an admonitory article on Madoff in 2001, would run $1,000/year or more. SEC employees needing to do research on derivatives they knew nothing about would have to turn to internet search engines. And 2) the SEC did not buy its employees business cards. If they wanted them, they had to pay for them. So after an SEC audit, the auditor could not turn to a Wall Street trader, analyst, or manager and say, "Here's my card. Please call me if there's any fraud you want to discuss privately."

Typos: Six times, principal is spelled principle. And the name of Marc Rich is misspelled.

Appendices contain the 2001 hedge fund newsletter article by Michael Ocrant, a member of Markopolos's team, and Markopolos's 2005 submission to the SEC. (less)

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Oct 09, 2011 Lis Carey rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobooks, business, non-fiction

In December 2008, Bernie Madoff, one of the most respected figures on Wall Street, co-founder and former president of NASDAQ, confessed to running the largest Ponzi scheme in history. On the heels of that revelation, we learned that this fraud had been going on for decades, and then that it was international in reach.

We also learned that there had been a whistleblower, who had warned the SEC a decade earlier, and when he was ignored had continued to investigate, and made additional filings, with...more In December 2008, Bernie Madoff, one of the most respected figures on Wall Street, co-founder and former president of NASDAQ, confessed to running the largest Ponzi scheme in history. On the heels of that revelation, we learned that this fraud had been going on for decades, and then that it was international in reach.

We also learned that there had been a whistleblower, who had warned the SEC a decade earlier, and when he was ignored had continued to investigate, and made additional filings, with additional and more complete information, including the growing size of the fraud.

That whistleblower was Harry Markopolos, and this is his story.
Markopolos was working in an investment firm as a quantitative analyst when a colleague mentioned Bernie Madoff and his unusually consistent and profitable returns on investments. They quickly concluded that Madoff's returns were impossible, and the only question was whether he was running a Ponzi scheme or engaging in "front trading"; using the information on stock trading available to him from his stockbroker business to do trades for his money management business beforehand, benefiting from the knowledge of the effect the other trades would have on the market.

Then they began to uncover the number of feeder funds channeling money into Madoff's care and management. At the time that Markopolos filed his first complaint with the SEC, he and his small crew of friends and helpers estimated the size of his "invested" funds at between three and seven billion dollars--an amount that would have moved the market if Madoff were really making those trades. By the time the 2008 financial crisis forced Madoff's Ponzi scheme into collapse, they estimated the size of his scheme at fifty billion dollars. What they didn't know until more and more of Madoff's victims came forward was that he was also accepting funds directly from individuals, and perhaps as much as $65 billion was involved, and perhaps as many as a million people around the world had suffered major losses, even the loss of everything they owned.

In crisp, clear terms, Markopolos tells the story of how he discovered Madoff's fraud, uncovered the size of it, and repeatedly tried to get the SEC to investigate and shut Madoff down. We see how many people had some understanding that Madoff's returns couldn't be real, but who ignored it because he was so respected, or so big, or, even worse, because his returns were so good. We see Markopolos' growing strain, eventually causing him to leave the financial industry and become a full-time fraud investigator, as well as the effects on the other members of his team. We also see the tragic effects on Madoff's victims and those in the industry who really believed that Madoff couldn't possibly be committing fraud.

Most importantly for the country as a whole, those of us who were not directly affected by Madoff's fraud, we see the incompetence and indolence of the SEC in the face of detailed, compelling, credible information that one of the major players on Wall Street was running a massive fraud. We thought the SEC was protecting us when we invested, and it wasn't. We were utterly without protection. New laws and regulations have been enacted, but there are efforts to roll those back, on the theory that the industry can regulate itself. The Madoff story, taken together with the other frauds, crimes, and reckless gambles that created the 2008 financial crisis and the current Great Recession, prove that it can't.

This is a moving, compelling story, but also an incredibly important one.

Highly recommended.

I borrowed this book from a friend.(less)

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Mar 09, 2010 Trish rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: nonfiction

This is an outstanding piece of work. Bernie Madoff was investigated by Markopolos and his team over a period of ten years, and yet this book reads with all the urgency and thrills of a case unfolding now and in a short window. Markopolos admits he is not politically correct, and he holds back no punches for agencies that obstructed, obscured, and ignored information that could have led to the detention of Madoff years before his scheme became widely known. And Markopolos is funny. The language...more

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Dec 16, 2011 Vannessagrace Vannessagrace rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: nonfiction

No One Would Listen is a true accounting of how Bernie Madoff pulled off his ponzi-scheme and how he pulled the wool over the heads of those who entrusted their money to him.

Harry Markopolos is the man who discovered Madoff’s scheme and took it to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) who has little investigative authority and who doesn’t regulate over the counter markets.

No One Would Listen was a great must read.

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Apr 17, 2010 Jenny Zarate rated it 2 of 5 stars

While reading about the Bernie Madoff scandal was fascinating, you can put the book down after he's arrested. Really. You want to, unless you just want to hear the author toot his own horn for the remainder of the book.

The author's language is very boring and dubious to read, in my opinion, because he sounds like a high school geek who has been vindicated, which, most likely is what he is. Although he was right, and no one would listen as the book title claims, it's no wonder; he is abrasive, an...more

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May 02, 2012 Mark rated it 4 of 5 stars

Harry Markopolos became aware of the Bernie Madoff fraud in 1999. He subitted a very thorough analysis and explanation to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (my former employer) on five different occasions. The SEC really blew it regarding Bernie Madoff, and Markopolos doesn't pull any punches in denouncing the SEC's incompetence. Markopolos estimates the size of the Madoff fraud was about $5 billion (yes, BILLION) when his team first started investigating in 1999. By the time Madoff blew...more

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Jan 08, 2012 Julie L rated it 4 of 5 stars

"No One Would Listen: A True Financial Thriller" is an account of the journey taken by Harry Markopolos and his team. The journey is amazing and sad. For this group of people to investigate Bernie Madoff (BM)--I wonder if Markopolos used BM as a double entendre?--for eight years for no compensation, but because it was the right thing to do, is admirable. This book is sad that with all of the overwhelming evidence that something was very wrong with BM's funds, the SEC did not conduct a vigorous i...more

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Mar 14, 2010 Dan Petegorsky rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Harry Markopolos is a bit like a real life Lisbeth Salander, without the sexual abuse (at least that we know of): a macho quant on a mission, and with a passion for vengeance. This is a very well told story less of Markopolos' pursuit of Bernie Madoff, whose fraud apparently jumped off the page at him the first time he looked at the numbers and strategy behind Madoff's purported earnings, as of the decade he spent trying in vain to get the SEC to investigate and shut down the Ponzi scheme.

The b...more

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Jul 26, 2010 April Helms rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: nonfiction

very easy read on one hand -- it's easy to follow, despite the finance and math terms (which are well explained), and Markopolos has a sense of humor that ranges from wry and sardonic to downright sarcastic. But fair warning: read in small doses or with a lighthearted, more upbeat read, because this will make your blood boil. I was somewhat familiar with the Ponzi scheme launched by Bernie Madoff, that it was huge, it was bad, and it ruined a lot of people financially, and that the government ag...more

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Mar 11, 2012 Dave rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: bios-memoirs, business, non-fiction

This is an amazing story on a person who discovered that Bernie Madoff's financial operation was fraudulent TEN YEARS before it finally collapsed, back when Madoff was managing about $3 Billion and on his way to over $50 Billion by the end. Markopolos painstakingly detailed Madoff's schemes and reported everything over the decade to several burrows of The SEC and major financial media outlets like The Wall Street Journal, but as the title suggests... I have to take Markopolos' account at face va...more

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“Certainly one of the most important things I learned is that numbers can be deceiving. There is a logic to mathematics, but there is also the underlying human element that must be considered. Numbers can't lie, but the people who create those numbers can and do. As so many people have learned, forgetting to include human nature in an equation can be devastating.” — 2 people liked it

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