Feb. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Harry Markopolos said he was so concerned about retribution from Bernard Madoff that he feared for his life during a nine-year review of the alleged fraudster’s money-management business.

Markopolos, in testimony prepared for a House Financial Services subcommittee tomorrow, said he submitted tips to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission without signing them to conceal his identity. Prosecutors arrested Madoff in December, accusing him of running a $50 billion Ponzi scheme.

“Our analysis lead us to conclude that Mr. Madoff’s fund and the secret walls around it posed great danger to those questioning and investigating them,” said Markopolos, a former Boston-based investment manager who began examining Madoff in 1999. “He was one of the most powerful men on Wall Street and in a position to easily end our careers or worse.”

Congress, which is examining why regulators missed Madoff’s fraud, called Markopolos to testify alongside SEC officials. Former SEC Chairman Christopher Cox criticized the agency in December, saying staff failed to pursue “credible and specific” allegations about Madoff for at least a decade.

Markopolos said his interactions with most “SEC officials proved to be a systemic disappointment.”

“SEC securities lawyers, if only through their investigative ineptitude and financial illiteracy, colluded to maintain large frauds such as the one to which Madoff later confessed,” he said.

To contact the reporters on this story: Jesse Westbrook in Washington at jwestbrook1@bloomberg.net; Mark Pittman in New York at mpittman@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: February 3, 2009 18:08 EST