"This is a Ponzi Scheme" (oct 1, 1998 – jan 1, 1999)

Description:

Boston-based Frank Casey, former vice president of marketing for Rampart Investment Management, first hears about Madoff and his split-strike conversion strategy from French aristocrat and fund manager Thierry de la Villehuchet.

He asks his colleague Harry Markopolos to do some reverse engineering on Madoff's trades. "I said, 'Harry, if you can do this for me, we can make a lot of money,'" he recalls. "Harry started engineering, looking at it and dissecting the returns. And after four hours of work or so, came up and said, 'Frank, this is a Ponzi scheme.' I said, 'Harry, that's a strong word.' ... And Harry says: 'Look at this. The market goes down. He's not hurt at all. He produces 1 percent. Market goes up, he produces 1 percent.'"

Casey tells FRONTLINE Markpolos's analogy was, "a baseball player would have to be hitting .925 straight for 10 years in a row. Would you bet on a player like that, that he wasn't doing something illegal?"

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