The Madoff whistleblower, Harry Markopolos, has finally and publicly detailed his nearly eight-year investigation into Bernard Madoff -- a period in which Markopolos said he feared for his life.

“If Mr. Madoff was already facing life in prison, there was little to no downside for him to remove any such threat,” said Markopolos’ testimony. “We did know, however, that he was one of the most powerful men on Wall Street and in a position to easily end our careers or worse.”

Markopolos provided detail evidence to the Securities and Exchange Commission from 2000 to 2008 and said there was an abject failure by the regulatory agencies, said his testimony.

Click to read Harry Markopolos's submitted written testimony.

Click here to see supplemental documents Harry Markopolos submitted along with the testimony.

“We don’t pretend to know what really happened on the mysterious 17th floor of the Lipstick Building at [Bernard Madoff’s] corporate offices,” said Markopolos. “Every bit of information we obtained was in the public domain. We never had any secret insider documents or smoking gun emails.”

Markopolos said he began his investigation into Madoff in late 1999 when a marketing executive from Rampart Investment Management Company Inc. told him of Bernard Madoff’s fantastic returns. Markopolos said he determined in less than four hours that Madoff’s operation was a fraud.

Madoff "was a 'no-brainer' investment but only in the sense that you had to have no brains whatsoever to invest into such an unbelievable performance record that bears no resemblance to any other investment managers' track record throughout recorded human history,” said Markopolos’ testimony.

In May of 2000, Markopolos said he contacted the SEC’s Boston office with his findings. The next year, Madoff spoke with Ed Manion in that office.

“Throughout the past 9 years, Ed Manion was the only SEC staff member who ever truly understood the Madoff scheme and the threat it posed to the public,” said the Markopolos testimony.

Manion told Markopolos to send the information to the SEC’s New York Regional Office, which he said he did in late 2001. Markopolos said his report, “Madoff Investment Process Explained,” received no response.

The following year, Markopolos said he flew to Europe on a business trip, where he spoke with 14 French and Swiss private client banks who bragged about Madoff, his returns and their “special access to him.” Markopolos said it was there he realized Madoff was running a Ponzi scheme.

Madoff's “masterful use of ‘hook’ by playing hard to get and his false lure of exclusivity were symptomatic of a Ponzi scheme. The dead give-away was the need for new money,” said Markopolos’ testimony. “I also came to realize several European Royal families were invested.”

By October 2005, Markopolos said he finally met with the SEC’s Boston Regional Office Branch Chief, Mike Garrity. Markopolos said Garrity was “interested and fully engaged.”

“He told me that if [Madoff] were located within the New England region, he would have had an inspection team inside [his] operation the very next day,” said Markopolos in his prepared testimony.

From then, Markopolos said Garrity tagged him the “Boston Whistleblower” to protect Markopolos’ identity.

Later that year, Markopolos said he submitted “The World’s Largest Hedge Fund is a Fraud” to the SEC, which he details and numbers 28 red flags. Markopolos said Garrity referred Markopolos to New York Branch Chief Meaghan Cheung.

Markopolos said he was always the one calling Cheung, and he said when he spoke to her she demonstrated a lack of interest. In an email Markopolos said he sent to Cheung in 2007, the whistleblower said, “when Madoff finally does blow up, it’s going to be spectacular, and lead to a massive selling by hedge fund, fund of funds as they face investor redemptions.”

Cheung, in an interview with the New York Post, said, "Why are you taking a mid-level staff person and making me responsible for the failure of the American economy?" she told the Post. "I worked very hard for 10 years to make a career, and a reputation, and that has been destroyed in a month."

Markopolos said he continued that year and the next, finally sending his updated 2005 report to the SEC in 2008.

“I tried calling back a few times but never got through and gave up,” said Markopolos.

By December the alleged Ponzi scheme had surfaced.

“It is a sickening thought but if the SEC had bothered to pick up the phone and spend even one hour contacting the leads, then [Madoff] could have been stopped in early 2006,” Markopolos said.

Markopolos submitted nearly 400 pages of testimony, documents, emails, letters, faxes, charts and graphs. He also has revealed he worked with three other investigators he said were with him throughout the entire investigation.