How do crooks steal billions and get away with it for so long?

It's easy: nobody listens to the whistle-blowers who know what's going on. Harry Markopolos tried to get someone at the SEC to listen to him. Why didn't they?

"The SEC was nonfunctional and still is nonfunctional. They'd have to improve several-hundred-fold to become functional. It is run by lawyers without any industry experience. They've never sat at a trading desk, never managed money. What chance do they have against Wall Street sharks?"

How would he reform the SEC?

"...Anybody who doesn't have a working knowledge of finance, they need to eliminate. There are plenty of qualified people that were laid off of Wall Street that would take those jobs. You give them a base of $150,000 to $200,000, and you turn it into an eat-when-you-kill type of compensation scheme like Wall Street has. You bring in a $100 million case. They give (you) a $10 or $15 million bonus."

His book, No One Would Listen: A True Financial Thriller, comes out in March 2010.

Read Fortune Magazine interview>>
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