GlobieIt’s hard to imagine that any Erie native had a bigger impact on the world in 2008 than Harry Markopolous.

After all, it was Markopolous — a 1974 Cathedral Prep grad — who blew the lid on the Bernard L. Madoff scheme.

While many others were turning a blind eye to an investment scheme that bilked many prominent nonprofit groups, foundations, and investors out of an estimated $50 billion, Markopolous was risking his reputation (and perhaps his life) by alerting the Securities and Exchange Commission to the alleged fraud.

The New York Times expressed the risk quite clearly in a recent piece:

In his devastatingly persuasive 17-page letter to the S.E.C., Mr. Markopolos saw two possible scenarios. In the “Unlikely” scenario: Mr. Madoff, who acted as a broker as well as an investor, was “front-running” his brokerage customers. A customer might submit an order to Madoff Securities to buy shares in I.B.M. at a certain price, for example, and Madoff Securities instantly would buy I.B.M. shares for its own portfolio ahead of the customer order. If I.B.M.’s shares rose, Mr. Madoff kept them; if they fell he fobbed them off onto the poor customer.

In the “Highly Likely” scenario, wrote Mr. Markopolos, “Madoff Securities is the world’s largest Ponzi Scheme.” Which, as we now know, it was.

Harry Markopolos sent his report to the S.E.C. on Nov. 7, 2005 — more than three years before Mr. Madoff was finally exposed — but he had been trying to explain the fraud to them since 1999. He had no direct financial interest in exposing Mr. Madoff — he wasn’t an unhappy investor or a disgruntled employee. There was no way to short shares in Madoff Securities, and so Mr. Markopolos could not have made money directly from Mr. Madoff’s failure. To judge from his letter, Harry Markopolos anticipated mainly downsides for himself: he declined to put his name on it for fear of what might happen to him and his family if anyone found out he had written it. And yet the S.E.C.’s cursory investigation of Mr. Madoff pronounced him free of fraud.

Erie had plenty to be proud of with respect to its native sons and daughters in 2008.

John Kanzius continued his well-documented quest to cure cancer.

Tom Ridge was considered a potential running mate for Sen. John McCain in his bid for President. Bob Sanders continued to be one of the NFL’s most feared players.

But Markopolous stands alone this year — and gets the nod as our Erie Expatriate of the Year.