Harry Markopolos is the type of guy that isn't going to stand around while an injustice is taking place.
You'll get this impression if you read his book or listen to the audiobook No One Would Listen.
The financial thriller takes you inside the Bernie Madoff scam and how Markopolos and his team stumbled upon it and then unraveled it.
Amazingly, Madoff had such a reputation that essentially no one would openly question his hedge fund.
Although Madoff sought to keep it a secret save for his investors, after a few years it was common knowledge for those with any sort of connection on Wall Street.
Harry relays that many simply assumed his outstanding and impossibly consistent returns were due to just insider trading.
In the book, it is conveyed to you that on Wall Street, a little insider trading is not nearly as bad as say running a Ponzi scheme.
Markopolos details his trials, fears, and tribulations throughout the nearly decade long pursuit of exposing the now notorious fraudster.
The largest Ponzi scheme in world history would have been stopped much sooner and saved billions of dollars had the Securities and Exchange Commission heeded Markopolos's repeated warnings in reports laced with red flags but they simply ignored him for several years.
Finally, they did investigate but cited Bernie for only minor violations.
In effect, the scam was allowed to perpetrate longer because these investigations and subsequent immaterial findings basically gave him a clean bill of health in many investors eyes.
Whether those investors should have blindly put so much faith in that finding is up for debate.
This writer says no, but either way the fraud could have stopped a lot sooner.
I highly recommend reading this book if financial tales interest you.