Bernie Madoff Timeline

After graduating from Hofstra College -- and one year after marrying his high school sweetheart Ruth Alpern -- Madoff starts his business with $5,000 saved from odd jobs, including lifeguarding and sprinkler installations. He works out of Ruth's father's accounting firm in midtown Manhattan.

Madoff started managing investments channeled through his father-in-law.

Madoff's trading business skyrockets.

Frank Avellino and Michael Bienes decide to go full time into recruiting clients for Madoff

Madoff serves on the council for four years; he also sits on numerous NASD committees and task forces, chairing several.

People start investing more into Madoff

Data was shown that Madoff was not hurt at all when the market goes down. This gave reason to believe that he was running a ponzi scheme.

Investigators believe that in the early 1990's is when the fraud started

During the decade, Madoff's market-making operation was handling trades equaling 9 percent of all trading on the New York Stock Exchange. Also, he serves as non-executive chairman of Nasdaq from 1990 to 1993 and uses the position to lobby Washington.

He submits an eight-page memo outlining his concerns to the SEC's Boston office. His Boston contact is unable to persuade his superiors to investigate and suggests Markopolos contact the SEC's New York office, which would have jurisdiction over Madoff's firm.