Slideshare has the 2005 SEC submission authored by Harry Markopolos. An absolutely fascinating read. Markopolos, a securities analyst, once worked for a competitor of Madoff. He could not figure out mathematically how Madoff was generating such levels of return. And he came to two major conclusions:

Unlikely: insider trading.

Highly likely: Madoff Investment Securities was the world’s largest Ponzi scheme.

His lengthy memo, available at Slideshare, offers a compelling example of the corruption taking place within the financial services industry in the United States. This op-ed piece in the New York Times provides more context.

Where on earth were the regulators during all of this nonsense?