Meet Tom Borgers: Your Local Fraud Fighter

By now, almost everybody has heard of Harry Markopolis. He's the guy who repeatedly blew the whistle on Bernie Madoff to the SEC. Unfortunately, no one listened.

Glen Ridge resident Tom Borgers is, like Markopolos, a certified fraud examiner. Founder of the Felsen Group, Borgers is an expert in tracking down financial bad guys, and he's now representing some Bernie Madoff victims. And he's got some news for you - and for President Obama. Borgers says Obama was dead wrong last week when he told talk show host Jay Leno that most of the stuff that caused our current financial crisis was "perfectly legal."

"I could attest to the fact that there was gross negligence and gross fraud at the highest levels," Borgers told me last week over coffee at the Glen Ridge Starbucks.

Unfortunately, says Borgers, who worked as a senior investigator for the FDIC during the savings and loan crisis, the government has a terrible record of going after financial fraudsters. He says federal regulators "never went after" 96 percent of the people responsible for the S&L crisis.

Borgers is now trying to help Madoff victims to recover some of their money. Specifically, he's trying to get Congress to rewrite the Securities Investor Protection Act, which is supposed to protect investors when their stockbroker goes belly-up. Madoff's 13,000 official victims are each guaranteed $500,000 compensation from the SIPC. The problem is many of those official victims were hedge funds, which will have to share that $500,000 among up to 5,000 people.

Borger's clients include are Rita and Frankie D'Agostino of Long Island, who appeared with Borgers on Fox 5 News. Rita lost her entire life savings with Madoff, including money set aside to take care of her handicapped son Frankie after she dies. "Right now my mission is to convince the Congress to change the law so that all the Ritas and Frankies can get at least $500,000," Borgers said.

He's also hoping the current financial crisis wakes government up to the need to prosecute those who caused the mess. The bonuses everybody's been focused on this past week are small potatoes. "We could fund the bailout if we went after those responsible for the crisis," Borgers said.