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Tim Levine
Harry Markopolos is an independent fraud investigator known for his role as whistleblower in the Bernie Madoff securities fraud scandal. Markopolos began investigating Madoff’s wealth management business in 1998 and found evidence that Madoff was operating a massive Ponzi scheme. Beginning in 2000, Markopolos repeatedly presented his findings to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), who either ignored Markopolos’s concerns or failed to invest them thoroughly. In 2008, nearly a decade after Markopolos first brought his concerns to the SEC, Madoff’s sons turned their father in to the FBI. Markopolos testified before Congress in 2009, and Madoff was sentenced to 150 years in prison. Gladwell considers Markopolos’s skepticism to be unusual—an attribute that makes him something of a contemporary Holy Fool whose position on the outskirts of society gives him the ability to speak aloud the inconvenient truths which nobody else is willing to admit.
Harry Markopolos Quotes in Talking to Strangers
The Talking to Strangers quotes below are all either spoken by Harry Markopolos or refer to Harry Markopolos. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 4
Quotes
If they came for him, he concluded, his only hope would be to hold them off as long as possible, until he could get help. He loaded up a twelve-gauge shotgun and added six more rounds to the stock. He hung a bandolier of twenty extra rounds on his gun cabinet. Then he dug out his gas mask from his army days. What if they came in using tear gas? He sat at home, guns at the ready—while the rest of us calmly went about our business.
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Harry Markopolos Quotes in Talking to Strangers
The Talking to Strangers quotes below are all either spoken by Harry Markopolos or refer to Harry Markopolos. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 4
Quotes
If they came for him, he concluded, his only hope would be to hold them off as long as possible, until he could get help. He loaded up a twelve-gauge shotgun and added six more rounds to the stock. He hung a bandolier of twenty extra rounds on his gun cabinet. Then he dug out his gas mask from his army days. What if they came in using tear gas? He sat at home, guns at the ready—while the rest of us calmly went about our business.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
