Beautiful Souls: The Courage and Conscience of Ordinary People in Extraordinary Times Highlight

In democracies, dissenting voices cannot be forcibly silenced this way—“living in truth” was not a crime. But they can be—and often are—ignored. Eight years before the scope of Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme was revealed to his clients and patrons, a financial analyst named Harry Markopolos began sending the SEC detailed reports showing that the amazing returns generated by Madoff Securities were mathematically impossible. Markopolos spoke up, repeatedly, meticulously documenting his claims, and the response ranged between yawns and silence. Markopolos also tried to tip off some reporters, with little more success. He later published an account of his futile effort to drum up interest in the largest Ponzi scheme in history, titled, appropriately, No One Would Listen.