Straight from central casting comes Harry Markopolus says Dana Milbank in the Washington Post
geeky, with too-big glasses and a prominent comb-over. When he spoke, it was in the vocabulary of a man who had watched a lot of detective movies.
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a next-generation Dirty Harry -- a derivatives industry vigilante, part Lt. Columbo, part Adrian Monk, with a dash of "Dragnet" and "Lethal Weapon" sprinkled throughout his testimony.
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Markopolos recounted how he figured out Madoff was a fraud ("It took me about five minutes") and how he proved it ("I did about four hours of modeling").
The lawmakers were impressed. "I would like to just say for the record that I see you as a modern-day Greek hero," said Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.).
Markopolos had a knack for blunt and colorful language befitting an action hero. He recommended that the SEC hire industry veterans who "have gray hair or no hair." He looked up at the panel's chairman, Paul Kanjorski (D-Pa.), who is gray and mostly bald. "You'd be perfect," Markopolos said.
He used detective-movie phrases, such as "There is no light and only darkness." Wall Street, he said, has a "code of silence," and Madoff now is held "under penthouse arrest."
The sleuth's choicest words were reserved for the SEC, which he assaulted with a vengeance once directed at Madoff. "I gift-wrapped and delivered the largest Ponzi scheme in history to them, and somehow they couldn't be bothered," he complained.