(NECN: Scot Yount, Newton, Mass.) – The man who exposed the largest Ponzi scheme in history is making a rare appearance tonight.

In the financial world he is a kind of geeky hero. Yet Harry Markopolos shuns the worldwide fame he has garnered by blowing the whistle on Bernie Madoff and the largest Ponzi scheme in the world.

Markopolos spoke at the Center For Asset Management’s annual conference at Boston College.

Markopolos and his team began their inquiry into Madoff in 1999. Markopolos was asked to try to reverse engineer Madoff’s investments, so that their Boston based firm could duplicate his results.

Markopolos-loves numbers, and it was enormously simple he says to use formulas to figure out that Madoff’s investment scheme was fraudulent. But what Markopolos found difficult–was convincing the Securities and Exchange Commission to investigate.

For nine years he kept up the quixotic fight-but the SEC wouldn’t take up the case. Now with Madoff having pleaded guilty-and thousands of investors bilked out of billions, the shy man who makes Whitman, Massachusetts his home says he still can’t sleep nights, even though he proved he wasn’t jousting at windmills.

He had done his best-even fearing for his life in the process, but it was not until the worst recession the county has seen in decades took hold–that Madoff was exposed.

Today Markopolos still shuns the cameras and fame. He testified before congress-but told legislators