Harry Markopolos, the former securities industry executive who uncovered Bernie Madoff’s wealth-management business Ponzi scheme, visited the University of Wisconsin-Madison and spoke with students Thursday.
Markopolos emphasized that while white-collar crime does not get the same focus as blue-collar crime, it often has a larger impact on society.
White-collar crime is nonviolent crime committed for illegal monetary gain, but he said blue-collar crime is often more widely reported and consists of crime to persons, and property.
“All the budgets go to blue-collar crime,” Markopolos said. “[White-collar crime] doesn’t have the same glory from law enforcement. There isn’t anybody getting shot. Yet, [white-collar] criminals often do the most damage to society.”
He also said the government needs to become more proactive in its search for large-scale fraud. Currently, only 20 percent of cases fit the standard for further investigation, he added.
One way he believes the government can become more productive in discovering fraud is through the use of “whistle-blowers.” He said whistle-blowers could be used to monitor fraud by checking financial records for accuracy and inconsistencies.
Markopolos said, looking back on the situation, he would not investigate Madoff again because of how dangerous it was to go against him, considering the scale of the scheme and the amount of people involved. However, he added it was an important starting point for change in the investment industry.
“For a period of several weeks I was actually going against my own government,” he said. “But [my team] asked ourselves, if not us, then who else will clean up our industry?”
