CBS NEWS: The man who uncovered Madoffs Ponzi scheme

CBS NEWS

(CBS) It has been two and a half months since Bernard L. Madoff was picked up and charged with what is believed to be the largest financial fraud in history. Yet we still don't know much more about the alleged $50 billion scam than what Madoff initially told the FBI agents who arrested him. There are still no indictments as federal prosecutors continue to unravel the case and try to figure out exactly what happened and who was involved.

But the proof that it happened can be found in the ruined lives of thousands of victims. The one person who knows the most and is willing to talk about it is Harry Markopolos, the man who figured out Madoff's scheme before anyone else.

Markopolos sat down with 60 Minutes correspondent Steve Kroft for his only television interview.

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Until a few months ago, Harry Markopolos was an obscure financial analyst and mildly eccentric fraud investigator from Boston who most people would never notice on the street.

But today he enjoys an almost heroic status, pursued by journalists and movie producers, and honored by colleagues as the man who went to the Securities and Exchange Commission and blew the whistle on Bernie Madoff and his $50 billion fraud.

But he seems uncomfortable with the attention, and knows that he is no hero. "I stand before you a 50 billion dollar failure," he said at an event.