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Peregrine Financial CEO Indicted On 31 Charges
It only took 20 years, a trail of counterfeit documents, superficial and failed audits, dubious tax returns and one unsuccessful suicide attempt, but in the end they got him: the CEO of failed commodity brokerage Peregrine aka PFG, Russell Wasendorf has been indicted on 31 charges of lying to government regulators regarding the failed brokerage's operations. He faces a maximum sentence of 155 years' imprisonment on the charges and fines of about $7.75 million, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Iowa. There is also that whole $215 million in commingled and subsequently stolen client money but that's another matter. In other words, just like Bernie Madoff, Wasendorf is going away for a long, long time for doing precisely what everyone else does: the first one for engaging in a ponzi even as now everyone acknowledges the entire system is one big ponzi - does that make it better and legitimate: apparently so; the second one for commingling client cash for personal benefit. As a reminder, this is what JPM did with $350 billion in excess deposit cash as part of its London whale trading fiasco, and broadly what every bank in the post Glass-Steagall world does with the roughly $8 trillion in total US bank deposits.
More from the WSJ:
Mr. Wasendorf was arrested July 13 on charges of lying to regulators following a suicide attempt on July 9 that included a confession that authorities say detailed a nearly 20-year fraud against Peregrine's customers. Regulators have estimated that about $215 million in customer money is missing.
Peregrine, which did business as PFGBest, filed for bankruptcy July 10.
No date has yet been set for Mr. Wasendorf to be arraigned on the charges, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney's Office.
A grand jury in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, on Peregrine took just one day to hear testimony and hand up the indictment against Mr. Wasendorf.
Is it good that Wasendorf is going away, most likely for the rest of his life? Of course- the man is a sociopathic criminal. But the problem is that the incentives, the controls, and the "processes" that PFG engaged in to cheat thousands of clients out of their life savings are pervasive throughout the US financial system. It is this, and not an individual appeals court case which incidentally has no impact on a completely standalone bankruptcy process and whose outcome can be appealed under any other jurisdiction, that US investors, or what's left of them, should be worried about. Because it is the fundamental flaws in the US financial system which virtually assure that all capital currently residing with US banks as financial intermediaries will, sooner or later, in the parlance of MF Global, vaporize.
Sadly, and just like in the stock market, the cognitive bias that "it can't happen to me" and that "I can always get out first" is dominant here as well. And will be, until both of these delusions are found to be 100% just that.
Finally we have one more thing to add: free Corzine! (who may or may not be found at the contact details for his home office).
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Corzine?
He's doin Ron Paul!
From: The Offices of The Hon. Jon S. Corzine
To: My fellow Americans & Patriots, ever vigilant
Dear Fellow Citizens,
While I am relieved to see that very preliminary measures regarding massive, systemic misappropriation of client funds by PFG are underway, we all need to by mindful of the sober fact that much work needs to be done to improve the odds that as full a measure of justice, economic and otherwise, is provided to all clients & victims of PFG.
This preliminary measure should also serve to warn all persons and institutions that may be arrogant enough to believe that they can emulate the actions and behavior of the PFG's of the world and escape justice. They can not & will not be allowed to do so.
As I've stated previously, our systems of economics and justice, which inherently rely on a robust pillar of trust in institutions, can not survive unless those who perpetrate fraud on this scale, obviously fueled by a seemingly unquenchable avarice and greed, are appropriately punished for their reprehensible deeds.
Finally, I would like to specifically acknowledge the outstanding dedication, attention to detail and willingness to pursue all leads and turn over any stone, that Mr. Eric H. Holder, Jr. our esteemed United States Attorney General, along with the support of hard working regulators working within various agencies charged with the vital duty of protecting the interests of market participants and U.S. taxpayers, have shown yet again. Their campaign to root out and prosecute what can only be desribed as a massive, viral epidemic of Wall Street & financial fraud, that has gone on virtually unchecked for far too long, is a modern testament to the ever vigilant system of justice that serves to protect all of us who always have and who always will "play by the rules."
Sincerely & With Respect,
The Hon. Jon S. Corzine
*Former United States Senator (D-NJ), Former Governor of New Jersey, Former CEO of Goldman Sachs, Former CEO of MF Global (a former Primary Dealer), and prominent Obama Bundler
This never gets old; my blood pressure med manufacturer thanks you as well. Nice work
We the Sheeple of the United States ...
The sheeps have had their day.
We're in charge now.........we're the Muppets from America! We use to be kids...but we're all grownup now.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79zC8RIcy0w
That is fucking brilliant work, Truth In Sunshine.
Thanks for the laugh. This is less funny:
Watch Jon Corzine And Barack Obama Campaign AdThanks to leaders like Corzine, I'm glad to see that the Five Year Plan is working so well in Amerika...
Watch Jon Corzine And Barack Obama Campaign Ad
Barry.....baffle them with bullshit and I'll steal their money - Jon Corzine
Don't need a get out of jail free card when you know you're never going to jail in the first place......screw you and good night - Jon Corzine
He should be free just due to the fact he's being prosecuted! When the scales off justice are off, we must degend the one and/or few that get it in the ass when others go free! Didn't Dr. Paul pen/approve racial vommit that the NSM ignored? I know he did! The media covers up for those that wish to destroy this country and start over. Beware the useful idiot, you idiots! Amen, amen, I say to you, Love God, for he lets you breathe!
Is this Tyler secretly Berkowitz? Great opening line.
yeah that was the VERY first thing I thought of with this.
WHERE IS CORZINE?!
Corzine is the financial Where's Waldo? until October.
I mean, the law and regulators must first, at all costs, have their priorities straight, right?
hmmm, I guess Wassendorf wasn't a White House financial advisor. Otherwise he'd be scott free right now in the Hamptons with the other "advisors"
Wasendorf wrote out a suicide note/confession. Corzine doesn't know anything except that he never directed that customer funds be misused.
"Is it good that Wasendorf is going away, most likely for the rest of his life? Of course- the man is a sociopathic criminal."
How about making the fucker work at McDonald's the rest of his life while he pays off the victims one paycheck at a time? I understand locking up killers or other violent offenders forever, but this guy stole money that was given to him under false pretenses. A just sentence is living in poverty while paying it back.
General population at Rikers sounds like more fun.
Naw. Force him to work in fast food for minimum wage, dealing with the public every single day. Make him live in a single-wide in a run down trailer park, riding the bus to and from work.
His next suicide attempt would be a guaranteed success.
another unconnected minnow goes to jail. :YAWN:
it is the fundamental flaws in the US financial system which virtually assure that all capital currently residing with US banks as financial intermediaries will, sooner or later, in the parlance of MF Global, vaporize...
word. they don't call them "brokers" for nothing.
Too bad for him that he's not a friend of Lloyd or Jamie. He'd get a fifty dollar fine and no admission of wrongdoing.
"I simply do not know where the money is"
-Jon Corzine
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrGw_cOgwa8
Yeah and we'd have to give him the fifty.
You can't blame the regulators if they were lied to. They couldn't capture criminal activity if the books were corrupt lies, could they? The regulators can't be expcted to be experts in picking up inconsistencies when doing audits, if the books balance out, right?.
(Coughbullshitcough!)
So they sacrifice a little fish while the whales go scot-free.
Where's Corzine?
I bet there is a hundred paparazzi that can tell you where Kim K.. Lohan, Snooki....are at any given moment.
Where's Corzine, Blankfein, Dimon ????
Directions to their house ???
http://www.celebrityhousepictures.com/jon-corzine.php
"Where's Corzine?"
Here he was in 2009:
http://cryptome.info/obama-protect17/pict59.jpg
http://cryptome.info/obama-protect17/pict5.jpg
http://cryptome.info/obama-protect17/obama-protect17.htm
I want to see some blood... just a little compensation... if you would not mind ...
Wasendorf should have used that line Corzine used: "You're and errand boy sent by grocery clerks to collect a bill..."
Great line from a great movie: Apocalypse Now.
http://www.hark.com/clips/gcvgsfsxhc-errand-boy
Colonel Kurtz would take a punk like Corzine and put his head on a stick.
im now pissed off with all this bullshit
I make a prediction? As they did in those olden days? Pain....
so i guess, he doesnt know where many of the skeletons are buried ???
was this guy a Tribesman or what? if so why was he banished to the hinterlands of Iowa?
not that far from the cme.
The volcano demands another virgin??
Bernie was no longer enough and another Hindu just won't do.
You have received a new message from MADOFF, BERNARD LAWERENCE, (291938666). Please visit http://www.corrlinks.com and login to retrieve your message.
Usted ha recibido un nuevo mensaje de MADOFF, BERNARD LAWERENCE,, (291938666). Por favor, visite http://www.corrlinks.com para iniciar su sesión y tener acceso al mensaje.
Well that should restore trust in the markets. Prosecute some obscure slug. At least Madoff won't be alone. Now if they really want to restore trust they will prosecute Martha Stewart.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Three former employees at JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM) branches in New York pleaded guilty on Monday to using the identities of Puerto Rican customers to file fraudulent tax returns, U.S. authorities said.
The three were charged in January by Manhattan federal prosecutors with orchestrating two separate tax fraud schemes between 2006 and 2007 that cheated the Internal Revenue Service and New York State out of $4.8 million.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/three-ex-chase-bank-workers-004149961.html
It's never enough.
Soon we will get JPM further losses on its CIO unit - Can't wait
He'll be the token industry scapegoat and will get a single cell for not ratting anybody else out.
the feds throw a $1.8 billion trial in drought-stricken iowa;
charlie manson to preside: no! he's not insane!
they must think this guy is another marthaStewart, gwar
this guy had a problem and solved it with fraudulent banking! what's not to like?
prez0 can take full credit for being on the take, er,...ball here! great campaign angle: if we elected mittens he would pardon this guy!
he is very remorseful. obviouly. and the poor man has suffered for years already! therefore the goobermint has accepted his offer of forfeiture of 1/2 of his severence pay of $15 million, the plea of nolo, and we release our dear friend with: time served!
Corzine is quite safe...
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/08/10/us-sentinel-appeals-decision-i...
Sentinel ruling may hurt MF Global clients
Futures brokers are required to keep customers' funds in dedicated accounts to protect them from being used for anything other than client business.
However, Thursday's ruling suggests that brokerages can use customer funds to pay off other creditors, Sentinel trustee Fred Grede told Reuters.
Worse, Grede said, is that the ruling suggests that a brokerage that allows customer money to be mixed with its own is not necessarily committing fraud.
That may raise the bar for proving that MF Global Holdings Ltd, under then-CEO Jon Corzine, misused customer funds as it scrambled to meet margin calls to back bets on European debt in the brokerage's final days. A $1.6 billion customer shortfall remains.
"I'm sure Mr. Corzine's attorneys will get ahold of this ruling and use it for all it's worth," Grede said.
http://www.celebrityhousepictures.com/jon-corzine.php
That Sentinel ruling is right up there with Kelo v. New London.
What a travesty.
Corzine will be convicted one day prior to his pardon by Obama.
Where are the regulators? Mary Shapiro? Gary Gensler? And how about lil Timmah Jeethner running the NY FED in 2007/8 when everything blew up?
Professor William Black-We've Decriminalized Fraud
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPP6xLlVP7I
In New York. But NOT in Iowa. I think it is now safe to say "outside of Iowa there is no Government right now." Now take your money from the Government and vote for you know who!
Well, Iowa is NOT in the club. It's just a corn-hole that funnels wealth to Chicago.
Just because everyone else is doing it doesn't make it right.
wait 'till you get the paycheck. then you'll understand the meaning of "shut your pie hole."
"Top flight police work, that's all there is to it."
http://www.subzin.com/quotes/Cool+Hand+Luke/Top+flight+police+work,+that's+all+there+is+to+it
this indictment is a limited hangout.....it's what the cia does when it gets trapped in one of its voluminous lies - it throws small fry under the bus in order save the entire criminal enterprise....and this is exactly what is happening here.....the criminals in charge of government can say that they did something...not once breathing that jon corzine, barry soetoro, jamie dimon and a host of other lying criminals got off scott free....
This indictment puts the regulators on the side of the law. Great cover by being the aggrieved.
Corzine now has a legal precedent, likely from a bribed or otherwise coerced Federal Appeals Court, explicitly stating that an FCM can use customer deposits to pay its debts, and that the customers themselves are subjugated and have basically no legal right to their own money.
http://www.infowars.com/warning-get-your-money-out-all-legal-bank-deposit-protections-are-now-officially-gone/comment-page-1/
al qaeda please just look here www.afajof.org/
the annual meeting is in January
please talk to them as best you can!
And Corzine is still free...
FORWARD SOVIET!
And Corzine is still free...
+100 TOTAL BULLSHIT...
but don't steal a soda!
http://newsfeed.time.com/2012/04/24/man-arrested-for-stealing-soda-refill/
RFLAMO!
This is the most magnificent contrast I have ever seen ... thanks
Corzine ($200,000,000.00 theft and no jail time) vs. Mark Abaire ($1.00 with jail time)
Well, to be sure, the entire system is one big Ponzi. But we still must give credit, where evil credit is due, to the hundreds and hundreds of creators of actual Ponzis that sprang up from the cesspool of crime that the American hedge fund and investment firm world became in the last decade, or so. I give you a partial list for your edification:
David Salinas of Friendswood, Texas
Monroe L. Beachy, of Sugarcreek, Ohio
Trevor G. Cook, of Minneapolis
Sean Michael Mueller, of Cherry Hills Village in Denver, CO
Bradley Ruderman, of Beverly Hills
Alan Fishman, of Brooklyn, NY, a taxi driver by trade, along with 2 associates
Jon-Paul Rorech and Renato Negrin
Bruce Bent, Sr and Bruce Bent, II
Michael Tom
Samuel Israel
Cary Brody
Maurice "Sonny" Cohn, Marcia Cohn, Robert Jaffe and Stanley Chais
Mark Bloom
Greg Bell, of Highland Park, Ill
Tom Petters, of Minnesota
Russell Abrams
Jess Greestein and Charles Wilk
Stuart Pippin, of San Antonio
Edwin Buchanan Lyon, of texas
Frank DePascali, of Queens
David Friehling
Brian Hunter
Ralph Cioffi and probably his brother
Matt Tannin
Howard Katz, of Buffalo Grove, Ill
William Noel, of Fairfield County, CT
John Henry Williams, of Maryland
Matthew La Madrid, of California
The late James M. McDonald of Massachusetts
Zvi Goffer
that's enough for today.
don't worry. be happy.
LOL, like everybody else, Corzine is the first name that came to mind.
The principle confirmed - the bigger the crime, the least likely to be punished.
Extended, the bigger and widespread the crime, the most likely result is a fall guy.
That is the escape valve for public frestration and outrage. The principle remains, the crimes go on.
Let's see ... $8M expense for $215M income. And the rest of your life in a country club prison, pool and library and three squares.
Not bad at all.
No wonder these guys never worry about getting caught.
Actually, only convicts with a less than 10 year federal sentence get the country club. Above that threshold and it's "behind the wall" where white collars don't want to be. It's a great incentive to rat on your friends, if the US ADA threatens with hard time.
Get this "country club" out of your minds.
1) NO federal prisons (including camps) have swimming pools. The liability to the stupid feds would be so high, and they have proven over and over again they can't run anything right.
2) Incorrect; Federal camps (stupidly referred to as Club Fed) take in non-violent convicts, as well as inmates who have earned their way down the system. Super Max, to Max, to Medium to Low, then to a camp. One might find contract killers in a camp, at the ass end of their sentence. If an inmate displays good behavior/doesn't get in fights/isn't a problem, they "work" their way down the system. Some sentences and classifications forbid inmates from entering camps - no matter what.
3) Any way you want to call it, it's prison - be it a camp, minimum security on up.
I know several federal prison government higher ups, who told me all about how their system works. They laughed when I asked them about pools and tennis courts - none exist these days.
You pretty much nailed it BB. I know a federal prison inmate at FPC Pensacola, which is one of the preferred camps to be designated. One thing I can tell you is that it can be treated like a retreat if you have short time, 2-3 years of less. It has a massive free weight pile, with Olympic barbells and dumbells, incline and decline benches, Smith machines, Nautilus equipment, etc. Inside, next to the library is a cardio room with about 20 eliptical machines, treadmills and stair climbers and abdominal equipment. The camp also has a 1/2 mile running track, softball and soccer field with a 1/4 mile straight track measured out for sprint work. At the camp you must work, so most of the jobs are at Naval Air Station Pensacola and each morning inmates are bused there. The Blue Angels practice at NAS half of the year, so each day you get quite a show. Conjugal visits are not allowed but if you work at NAS some guys find ways to see their girlfriends and wives for a bit of off camp extracurricular activities. Other guys are able, but not allowed, to golf at NAS's course as long as you want to play a few holes which are located along the waterway. Of course if they get caught doing these things, they get shipped to a higher security facility, so there are risks.
Yeah Alaric....these two guys (one an assistant warden, the other a regoinal hot shot) told me the weight rooms at camps are insane.
The only thing these guys can do IS work out, so you have a bunch of muscle-heads walking around with nothing else to do.
The biggest thing they "pinch" the camp inmates for is having cell phones. They call cell phones a "bus trip violation" (up to the low - or beyond).
Ok so if we arrest one criminal banker every 7 years and there are 1.2 million criminal bankers worldwide we will rid the world of criminal bankers in........
Fuck that math.
Where is Mr. Hawking?
Gawd fucking ZeroHedge fucking rocks. Fight the the good fight.
http://jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.com/2012/08/bill-black-educates-med...
Good interview with Bill Black by Fartoromo.
http://www.macrobusiness.com.au/2012/08/australias-sub-prime-mortgage-sc...
CS Corzine ... How can he be strutting around with other people's money stuffed in his pockets, shilling for Obama ... Oh, I guess I answered my own question
Great piece and thread. Thanks ZH.
The financial terrorists "they" have already won. When the senate suckers let Corzince whine in front of the agriculture panel - what was the purpose? Congress and senate was waiting in bent over position before one of their masters, Jamie Dimon, even entered the building to ignore their "questions" in June. They have already won. If only a tiny fraction of the money, effort, commitment that go/went into homeland security, the NSA, the NDAA was being / would have been comitted to fight them, the world would be a better place. It ain't gonna happen. They completely own those that command the dogs that were to go after them. So the dogs go after us. The have won.
The crime is not stealing or fraud. It's lying to the state. These are the only crimes now: crimes against the state or its agents. Crimes between citizens? Yeah right. The state neither protects against those real crimes nor prosecutes them unless they think they're going to steal the loot before you are awarded the tort.
To be honest fuck the government, I hope they lose this case. Lying to a bunch of criminals is not a crime.
So true. The concept of "crimes against the state" would have been laughed at in the old days. Now they clog the courts and everything else is put on the back burner. Oh well, after the MASS ARRESTS, the RESTORATION OF THE CONSTITUTION, and the ENEMA OF MONUMENTAL PROPORTIONS takes place, there will be some semblance of justice... http://tinyurl.com/cd5cyjo/
How many charges was John "the Slime" Corzine brought-up on? Oh yeah, NONE! We all need to become a member of the 535 Club. Their exempt from E V E R Y T H I N G.
The rot is everywhere!
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-08-13/mortgage-broker-blows-whistle-on-big-banks/4195920
Indicted!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lh3TqPChILQ
I pledge allegiance. One Nation, under the Federal Reserve Note, with liberty and justice for some.
Too bad the guy wasn't a former Senator, Governor, or a Goldman Sachs board member.
He'd have this all squared away by 8 o'clock for his tee time.
Has anyone investigated whether Wasendorf is a pedo? He has that weird gleam in his eye like Sandusky and Bawney Fwank. Of course, he'd probably have to write a confession and try to kill himself again before anyone would notice him raping children in the break room.