In a new tell-all book, the Boston financial planner who repeatedly attempted to expose Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme reveals that he was ready to kill Madoff if necessary. In the book, No One Would Listen, Harry Markopolos details the lengths he went to in order to stop Madoff's massive frauds. Markopolos also writes that out of fear of the powerful and well-connected Madoff, he was driven to carrying a gun and checking his car for bombs. Markopolos also had a plan to protect his home in case of an ambush, with his armed wife trained to stake out the second floor.

Whistleblower says he was prepared to murder Bernard Madoff

Making a real killing

By Jerry Kronenberg / Herald Exclusive
Sunday, February 28, 2010

The Boston financial whiz who tried for years to expose Bernard Madoff reveals in an explosive new memoir that he made plans to murder the Ponzi schemer if necessary.

“If (Madoff) contacted me and threatened me, I was going to go down to New York and take him out,” Whitman resident Harry Markopolos writes in “No One Would Listen,” due in bookstores Tuesday. “At that point, it would have come down to him or me, (and) I felt I had no other options: I was going to kill him.”

“No One Would Listen” tracks Markopolos’ eight-year odyssey to warn the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that Madoff was running the largest investment scam in history.

Working for a Boston financial firm in 2000, Markopolos discovered the $65 billion Ponzi scheme while trying to reproduce Madoff’s unbelievable investment returns.

However, the SEC ignored Markopolos’ numerous warnings, and the scam only collapsed when Madoff turned himself in on Dec. 11, 2008. The global market meltdown had left the crook unable to come up with money his clients were clamoring to get back.

Markopolos, who skewered the SEC in televised testimony before Congress last year, has previously said he feared for his life during his long quest.

After all, Madoff faced years in prison if caught, and Markopolos thinks the scam’s victims included mobsters and drug dealers he believes laundered money through Madoff.

But in his book, Markopolos reveals for the first time just how far he went to protect himself.

A self-described math “nerd,” the 53-year-old had nonetheless served for nearly two decades as a U.S. Army Reserve officer.

So, Markopolos not only contemplated killing Madoff, but also routinely carried a gun, checked his car for bombs and varied his driving routes to thwart ambushes.

He even had his wife learn to use a pistol, assigning her the job of defending their home’s second floor if an attack came.

“How was (Madoff) going to respond if he found out that I was trying to bring him down?” Markopolos writes. “Was it better for Bernie to get rid of me, or let (his criminal clients) get rid of him?”

The whistleblower was also afraid of the SEC, fearing the agency wanted to cover up its mistakes.

Markopolos reveals that he readied a shotgun and his old army gas mask shortly after Madoff’s arrest, preparing to stage a standoff at his home if the agency arrived.

He planned to hold SEC staffers at bay until local police arrived and took possession of his files.

SOURCE The Boston Herald

Read the full article here.