SEC Misses Again
The good news is disgraced investor Bernie Madoff's $50 billion dollar Ponzi scheme was noticed back in 1999 by an astute financial expert-the bad news is he wasn't from the Securities and Exchange Commission. Massachusetts investor Harry Markopolos in a written report to the SEC in 2005 stated "It's highly likely that Madoff Securities is the world's largest Ponzi scheme ." In the report , he says he knew his research could ruin people's careers and asked the SEC be discreet about circulating the report and his name. The report highlighted 29 red flags about Madoff's business, however this report went ignored by the SEC, and they continued to ignore Markopolos ' warnings over the next decade. Markopolos became suspicious of Madoff consistent 12% returns in both up and down markets. Madoff's reportedly employed a common investment strategy involving buying stocks of major companies, then hedging those investments by buying options c