Harry Markopolos
Certified Fraud Examiner / Forensic Accounting & Financial Mathematics Consultant
Harry Markopolos received his B.A. in Business from Loyola University of Maryland and then went on to Boston College for his M.S. in Finance degree. He earned his Chartered Financial Analyst’s designation in 1996 and his Certified Fraud Examiner’s designation in 2008. From 2002-2003 he served as the Chairman of the CFA Society of Boston. He has also served on the boards of directors of the Boston Chapter Global Association of Risk Professionals and Boston QWAFAFEW, a quantitative finance lecture group.
Mr. Markopolos received a reserve commission as a 2nd Lieutenant, Infantry, in the US Army and is a graduate of several Army schools including the Infantry Officers’ Basic and Advanced Courses, the Civil Affairs Officers’ Advanced Course, and US Army Command & General Staff College. Mr. Markopolos has commanded troops at every rank from 2nd Lieutenant to Major during 17 years of part-time service in the Army National Guard and Army Reserve.
He was an assistant portfolio manager for Darien Capital Management in Greenwich, CT for three years; leaving to become an equity derivatives portfolio manager for Rampart Investment Management Company in Boston. In 2002 he was promoted to Chief Investment Officer but decided to leave the industry in August 2004 to pursue fraud investigations full-time against the financial services industry. He brings CEO and CFO orchestrated multi-billion-dollar white-collar fraud cases to the US Department of Justice, and the Securities & Exchange Commission under whistleblower bounty programs. The Madoff case was his first major investigation, which he started in early 2000 and he’s been hooked ever since.
Mr. Markopolos and his whistleblower team wrote the best-selling book: “No One Would Listen: A True Financial Thriller,” © 2010 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. detailing their 9-year investigation into the $64.8 billion Madoff Ponzi scheme. A documentary based upon the book entitled “Chasing Madoff,” was released in theaters in late August 2011 and is now available via streaming.
Many of his cases appear regularly on the front pages of the financial press. His involvement in the whistleblower team that turned in the Foreign Exchange fraud cases against the US custody banks led to billions of dollars in recoveries by victimized mutual funds, pension funds and hedge funds. He was part of the whistleblower teams that turned in the $1.6 Billion Platinum Partners Ponzi scheme in New York as well as the same sized, $1.6 Billion Aequitas Ponzi scheme in Lake Oswego, Oregon. Some of the notable accounting frauds he’s worked on are the Life Partners Holdings Inc. and AmTrust Financial Services cases. He particularly enjoys working with the FBI and USDOJ on the criminal side of financial fraud cases which, to date, have resulted in 33 arrests.
