Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/sec-slammed-during-madoff-hearing-for-ignoring-alleged-ponzi-scheme Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Transcript Lawmakers and a whistle-blower blasted the Securities and Exchange Commission during Congressional hearings into the case of Bernard Madoff, a Wall Street investor accused of massive fraud. Kwame Holman reports. Read the Full Transcript Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors. JIM LEHRER: And next tonight, an update on the Bernard Madoff case and whether the government did its job. That was the subject of a congressional hearing today as the Securities and Exchange Commission continued to come under fire.NewsHour congressional correspondent Kwame Holman has our report. KWAME HOLMAN: Democrat Paul Kanjorski, chairman of the House Capital Markets Subcommittee, today praised a private investor who says he saw financier Bernard Madoff's $50 billion Ponzi scheme as a fraud nearly 10 years ago and alerted authorities about it. REP. PAUL KANJORSKI. D-Pa.: Mr. Markopolos was justifiably relentless in ringing alarm bells.HARRY MARKOPOLOS, former investment fund manager: You, above all others, deserve to know the truth about this agency's failings, and I will do my best to explain them to you today. KWAME HOLMAN: Harry Markopolos, once a successful fund manager, investigated Madoff's firm on behalf of some private investors. He said he reported Madoff's scheme to the Securities and Exchange Commission. HARRY MARKOPOLOS: As today's testimony will reveal, my team and I tried our best to get the SEC to investigate and shut down the Madoff Ponzi scheme with repeated and credible warnings to the SEC that started in May 2000, when the Madoff Ponzi scheme was only a $3 billion to $7 billion fraud.We knew then that we had provided enough red flags and mathematical proofs to the SEC for them, where they should have been able to shut him down, right then and there, at under $7 billion. But, unfortunately, the SEC staff lacks the financial expertise and is incapable of understanding the complex financial instruments being traded in the 21st century.