Nine years before Bernie Madoff’s multi-billion dollar ponzi scheme came crashing down in 2008 and he went to prison, there was a whistleblower, Harry Markopolos. Markopolos had repeatedly gone to authorities with evidence of Madoff’s crimes. His massive PSA was ignored.
The people at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission who could have done something to stop the massive fraud did not. They failed to act until they had no choice, but to act.
Meanwhile, Markopolos lived in fear of his life while trying to convince the world of Madoff’s crimes. Crimes which, ultimately, resulted in Madoff being sentenced to serve 150 years in Federal prison.
The mastermind of America’s biggest investment fraud died in prison on April 14, 2021.
Some whistleblowers are initially mocked, and defamed. They may receive the “nuts and sluts” treatment from guilty men, misogynists, the women who enabled them, and/or the hypocrites.