Directed by Jeff Prosserman. 90 min. G. Opens Aug. 26.
For nearly 10 years before it all went pear-shaped along with the rest of the global economy, a Boston financial analyst named Harry Markopolos knew that Bernie Madoff was running a multi-billion-dollar Ponzi scheme. As told in this engrossing documentary by Jeff Prosserman, the story of Markopolos’ frustrating efforts to sound alarm bells serves as an object lesson on just how hard it is to get people to question the ethics or methods of someone who at least seems to be making them all richer. Who wants to kill a goose if it’s still laying those golden eggs?
Adapted from Markopolos’ book No One Would Listen and packaged in a slick, fast-paced style familiar from Errol Morris’ bio-docs, Chasing Madoff is inevitably dominated by the investigator’s voice since he is Prosserman’s primary interview subject (Madoff himself has been infamously reticent about discussing his crimes). Luckily, Markopolos proves to be nearly as fascinating as the crook he so doggedly pursues—a hunt he began after happening upon a set of financial figures he knew were too good to be true. Presented here as both heroic whistleblower and nutty obsessive, Markopolos is candid about his fears that his investigation made him a target for assassination. Then again, given Madoff’s apparent invincibility through the years of this chase, maybe Markopolos was wise to sleep with a loaded gun at his bedside.
