Wall Street Journal Ignored Madoff Story 3 Years Ago

By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 4, 2009 5:59 PM CST
Wall Street Journal Ignored Madoff Story 3 Years Ago
Independent financial fraud investigator Harry Markopolos testifies on Capitol Hill.   (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

Today's testimony from the private fraud investigator in the Bernie Madoff case makes one thing clear, writes business blogger Gary Weiss: The Wall Street Journal blew it. Harry Markopolos said editors of the paper blocked a reporter from investigating the case three years ago. Markopolos didn't know why, but he surmised that top editors "respected and feared Madoff" and wouldn't let the reporter board a plane to go after the scoop.

"Unfortunately neither the Wall Street Journal nor SEC were inclined to even pick up a phone and dial any of the leads I provided to them," Markopolos said. That's a "bombshell," asserts Weiss: The newspaper "missed an opportunity to achieve one of the biggest scoops ever, win a Pulitzer Prize and all that other good stuff—and extinguish the biggest fraud in financial history." (More Bernard Madoff stories.)

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