MF Global > Corzinne > Tree > Rope

[parsley]

http://tinyurl.com/7hy6blb

Sonofabitch. Pars

[boarderbloke]

former Democrat senetor from New Jersey, still not in jail because he's too close to Obama and Holder, phucking crocks!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/nov/08/barackobama-wallstreet-bankers-campaign-donations-goldmansachs

[parsley]

You've charted the correlation, all right. Cash
donations shuts mouths and curbs charges.

[$short]

Good post.

Whether you steal $20 or $200 million your still a
thief and should be treated as such.

[parsley]

Read this one, $Short:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/13/opinion/nocer
a-is-mf-global-getting-a-free-pass.html?_r=3

MF Global outright robbed the customer accounts
.... grain and oil and gold and copper......

They are sonofa******* being protected by
sonofa*******. Pars

[$short]

For some reason I can't open the link?

[parsley]

Quote Is MF Global Getting a Free Pass

Published: March 12, 2012


It’s sure starting to look as if Jon Corzine is going
to get away with it.

Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times
Joe Nocera

By now, it has been well established that
Corzine’s former firm, MF Global, committed the
sin of sins for a broker-dealer. In late October,
during the final, desperate days before it entered
bankruptcy proceedings, its executives took
money from segregated customer accounts —
money that belonged not to MF Global but to the
farmers and commodities traders that were its
clients — and used it to prop up its rapidly
collapsing business. Nor was this petty cash: of
the $6.9 billion in customer assets that MF Global
held, a stunning $1.6 billion is missing. There is
virtually no chance that the full amount will ever
be recovered.

Let’s not mince words here. These executives
committed a crime. Virtually every knowing
violation of the Commodities Exchange Act is a
crime, but taking money from segregated
customer accounts is at the top of the list. And for
good reason. Customer money is supposed to be
sacrosanct. If a broker-dealer goes bankrupt, the
segregated accounts are supposed to remain
safe, a little like the way bank deposits remain
protected if a bank goes under. Indeed,
customers need to be able to trust the fact that
their money is segregated and protected at all
times. Otherwise, the markets can’t function.

Yet, a few weeks ago, Azam Ahmed and Ben
Protess, who have done a remarkable job
covering the MF Global bankruptcy for The Times,
wrote an article suggesting that prosecutors were
having trouble putting together a criminal case
against anyone at MF Global. So far, wrote
Ahmed and Protess, they’d been “unable to find a
smoking gun.” In fact, they continued, “a number
of federal prosecutors have expressed doubts”
that MF Global “intentionally misused customer
money.” Apparently, the current theory is that it
was all just a big accident, the chaos of those final
days causing the firm’s executives to tap into
customer funds without realizing it.

Excuse me while I roll my eyes. Of course there
isn’t a smoking gun. As a general rule, financial
professionals tend not to write e-mails that say,
“Hey, we’re desperate. Let’s break into the
customer accounts!” And, of course, they are
always going to say it was unintentional. They are
saying it already, starting with Corzine, who told
Congress last year that “there was no intention to
violate segregation rules.”

As for the chaos, you bet it was chaotic at the
end. How could it not have been? Last month,
James W. Giddens, the bankruptcy trustee for the
broker-dealer arm of MF Global, issued a report
that vividly described the scene: “The rush to
meet funding needs ... led to billions of dollars in
securities sales, draws on credit facilities and a
web of intercompany loans. ... The company’s
computer systems and employees had trouble
keeping up. ... A number of transactions were
recorded erroneously or not at all. ...” And so on.

Well, fine. But is it really plausible that you can
take $1.6 billion — nearly 25 percent of the
customer assets under management — and not
know you’ve used customer money? It is not. One
theory, which is implicitly suggested in the
trustee’s report, is that the executives “borrowed”
the money thinking they would be able to replace
the funds quickly, which they then couldn’t
because the counterparties wouldn’t give back the
collateral. That’s still a crime.

I understand that bringing complex financial cases
in front of a jury is not easy. But what prosecutors
don’t seem to understand is that the country
needs them to bring these cases. When they took
a pass on Angelo Mozilo, the former chairman
and chief executive of Countrywide, and Richard
Fuld, who was chief executive of Lehman
Brothers when it went bankrupt, they sent a signal
that the highly paid executives who gave us the
financial crisis would not be held to account.

A failure to prosecute anyone at MF Global would
be, if anything, even worse. It would mean that
executives at a broker-dealer can indeed steal
customer money and get away with it — so long
as it was “unintentional.” And it would only deepen
the cynicism so many people feel about
government. I’ve heard it suggested, for instance,
that the Justice Department won’t prosecute
Corzine because it would hurt President Obama.
(Corzine, the former governor of New Jersey, had
been a big fund-raiser for the president.) I don’t
happen to subscribe to that theory, but I certainly
understand why others might.

To be sure, it is early yet. Federal investigators
are still digging into the facts surrounding MF
Global’s failure, no doubt searching for that
elusive smoking gun. But if, in the end, they
decide they can’t make a case, I hope they
understand what they are telling the rest of us.
Giving the big guys a pass isn’t good for the
financial markets. And it isn’t good for democracy
either.Unquote