Madoff/SEC: Bush Holdovers Stonewall Financial Services Committee Investigation

Harry Markopolos testified before the House Financial subcommittee that his warnings as early as 2000 and on four subsequent occasions to the Securities and Exchange Commission about Bernie Madoff's fraud went unheeded, despite his having given them evidence. They could have confirmed as easily as asking Madoff for trade certificates to prove that he was actually making the trades he was representing to his clients - and discovering that he didn't have any. Markopolos said of the SEC investigators, "If you took a busload of them up to Fenway Park - they couldn't find first base." Rep Gary Ackerman got only a stonewall from the SEC reps after Markopolos testified.