This page has been archived and commenting is disabled.
Someone Is Going To Jail For This: MF Global Caught Stealing Hundreds Of Millions From Customers?
Say you are the head back office guy at MF Global, it is the close of trading on Thursday, the firm has already completely drawn down on its revolver, and all the resulting cash in addition to all the firm's cash at your disposal in affiliated bank accounts, up to and including petty cash, has been used to satisfy margin demands due to declining collateral value, yet the collateral calls just won't stop, and impatient voices on the other side of the phone line demand you transfer even more cash over immediately or else risk default proceedings commenced against you within minutes. What do you do? Do you go ahead and tell your superior that the firm is broke even though the co-opted media is trumpeting every 5 minutes that "MF Global is fine", knowing full well you will be immediately fired for being the bearer of bad news, or do you assume that courtesy of your uber-boss being the former head of the Vampire Squid, and thanks to infinite moral hazard which after Lehman made sure nobody would ever fail ever again, that there is simply no way that you will be left without some miraculous rescue, if only you can last one more day, and as a result proceed to "commingle" some client funds with the firm's cash. It turns out that at MF Global you do the latter... over and over... until you have literally stolen hundreds of millions from the firm's client accounts in hopes that the miracle rescue will come on Friday... then over the weekend... and then you realize no miracle is coming, partly because your actions have been exposed, partly because miracles only exist in fairy tales. The next thing you know, your firm is bankrupt and hundreds of clients are about to learn that all their money is gone. Poof. This is not a fictional tale. This is precisely what very likely happened at MF Global in the past 72 hours. And someone has to go to jail. That someone, if indeed this criminal act is proven to have taken place, should be none other than Jon Corzine himself.
The sad truth of just how low Wall Street has fallen comes to us courtesy of the New York Times:
Federal regulators have discovered that hundreds of millions of dollars in customer money have gone missing from MF Global in recent days, prompting an investigation into the company’s operations as it filed for bankruptcy on Monday, according to several people briefed on the matter.
The revelation of the missing money scuttled an 11th hour deal for MF Global to sell a major part of itself to a rival brokerage firm. MF Global, the powerhouse commodities brokerage run by Jon S. Corzine, had staked its survival on completing the deal.
As for the details:
What began as nearly $1 billion missing had dropped to less than $700 million by late Monday. It is unclear where the money went, and some money is expected to trickle in over the coming days as the firm sorts through the bankruptcy process, the people said.
But regulators are examining whether MF Global diverted some customer money to support its own trades as the firm teetered on the brink of collapse. If that was the case, it could violate a fundamental tenet of Wall Street regulation: Customers’ money must be kept separate from company money.
And just like in the Lehman collapse where tens if not hundreds of international prime brokerage hedge fund clients, due to no fault of their own, found themselves insolvent after their cash ended up being caught at the London Lehman office (the details of how that money was illegally transferred from London to the US is a different topic entirely) and never to be seen again except to satisfy general unsecured claims, so thousands of MF clients are about to realize that money they thought they had, even if completely unencumbered with other assets, read pure cash, read money not at risk, is now gone forever, and they will have to wait years until the bankruptcy process determines if the claim deserves priority status to the unsecured bondholders. Best case: assume a 70% haircut on the money, if it is every to be seen again at all.
So who can be sued? Who can be blamed for this malicious and purposeful criminal act? Why everyone from the back office clerk presented in the thought experiment above, all the way up to the man at the very top, Jon himself, who, like in every other act of Wall Street impropriety will plead stupidity and deny he ever knew of this crime. Unfortunately, our criminal regulators, who will be just as complicit in clearing him of all wrongdoing, will aid and abet this latest destruction of faith in US capitalism.
What happens next? Why customers at all other brokerages, all other exchanges, afraid that their money will suffer the same fate as MF, even if they transact with perfect solvent clearers and agents, will proceed to pull their money, as they know they have nobody to trust but their own prudent and forward looking actions. Which in turn will start the kind of liquidity drain that killed not only Lehman, but froze money markets, and with that brought the complete capital markets to a standstill, only to be thawed after the Fed pledged multiples of the US GDP to rescue Wall Street in October of 2008.
And that, dear reader, is called unintended consequences, and how the bankruptcy of a small exchange can avalanche into a crippling Ice Nine of what is left of capital markets all over again, courtesy of crony capitalism, rampant criminality and a regulator and enforcement body that is more fascinated with midget porn than any regulating or enforcing of the very firms it hopes to get an assistant general counsel job from in a few short years.
»
- 55857 reads
- Printer-friendly version
- Send to friend
- advertisements -
yes, the porn shop!
Note the comment, that intermingling the two pools of funds would "violate a fundamental tenet of Wall Street regulation: Customers’ money must be kept separate from company money."
Fuckin'-A right. They Must Remain Separate. The Customer Money is there to be churned. looted, misapproriated, violated and stolen. The Firm's Money must be preserved at all costs for it is thence from where salaries and boni grow.
Fuckin'-A Right.
Prime Directive.
Uh yeah but this assumes you live in a country of laws. America is Kenya and Zimbabwe now.
it never was when we had a middle class that knew where their roots came from -
it seems in the last 30/ 40 years, they have been put on the 'endangered species list'
One word - TV. Conservatives think Fox/Al Waleed is any better than Disney/ABC/Al Waleed or CNN/Time Warner/Al Waleed or NBC/GE/Comcast/Al Waleed. The Saudis and the tribe have money and joint ventures with all the networks. Sheep who watch TV enable it ALL.
Spot on Freddie. TV and the bought up press...
On TV
On the Press
ORI
Kenya?
and then it's...ON TO THE TAXPAYER!
+1"boni"
SPORTSFANS, IT'S NOT THE SEC IN PLAY.
It's the SIPC.
Guess who has to replace the customer money? It's the securities agency's FDIC clone.
SIPC is not the government. Not saying you did say it, but it needs to be pointed out.
I thought the SPIC was broke after that Madoff thingy.
How did the latinos get involved?
"Sipc-a-Dee-Doo-Dah"
"Zip-a-Dee-Away"
"My-oh-My-What-a-Wonderful-Day"
Obama had Corizide on a short list of candidates to replace Tim the tax cheat. Two things, Obama must go and Geithner should be in jail with Corizide.
Corzine was on a short list and Obama belongs on a short bus. I could still see him coming to Corzine's defense. That's what human fecal matter does.
obama and the fed is on corzine's short list of people to call when corzine got the margin call. Due to the hostile political climate i guess they are not very receptive to corzine's ideas. obama is readying the next round of bankster bailouts, they will be consolidated into one huge bailout. mark my words next one will be big
I don't know. Corzine lobbied hard for that position and Obummer basically blew him off. That was the impression I got at the time.
When you say "blew him off".........................?
I hear Barry is the blowee, not the blower.
it'll prob be dimon
I said months ago that Eurozone shit would cause Fed primary dealers to go bankrupt. Its on record.
http://freegoldobserver.blogspot.com/2011_09_01_archive.html
MF down..
Spitzer, I know you are the biggest fan of the Euro on ZH. I don't mean that as an insult. So how does this help the Euro? How well do you think the Euro can do, in lieu of the news of a Greek referendum? I can tell you that you know this a lot better than I do. I always appreciate seeing your opinioin.
Spitzer must be OK or they would not have done that DSK-deal on him.
Re. the Euro - Jim Willie talked along time ago about a rump/remanent/Nordic Euro.
Greece needs to return to the Drachma. The "Latin Euro" is DOA and that leaves the remaining rump/remanent/Nordic Euro that Jim Willie talked about a long time ago.
I don't really know how this will play out but the fact is, Eurozone issues brought down a Fed primary dealer bank. What if the EU problems bring down another bigger primary dealer bank ? And then the specs turn to the US ?
and this in turn means Fed won't bail out deadbeat eurozone. collapse wll happen on both sides of the atlantic. the difference is, on the other side they will blame a neighboring euro country and go to war. history is ALWAYS right.
I think they just did a partial bailout of the eurozone with the vast majority of MF Global's deposits.
The whole scheme was designed to fail, why else put Corzine in charge.
I'm not sure which hurts worse, gettin' ass raped by your ex-wife's lawyer, or being ass raped by Jon Corzine and MF Global.
my guess would be a "totally insane Trichet" was not factored into equation. Once he said "non" to the CDS--that was the end of MFGlobal. Soon we will be adding major European banks to the list.
Re. why else put Corzine in charge?
Good point PureEvil. It's like lighting a back fire to slow down the fire-storm.
Spitzer - You also called the Euro peg correctly as well, even though its just a bridge for the Chinese peg. Well called sir.
Show me one Jewish bankster who has gone to jail.
Madoff? Is he considered a banker?
well he was a regulator. isn't that considered "the next best thing"?
Maybe I missed something, But I thought Corzine was Italian.
Maybe I missed something. There are no jews in Italy?
Michaelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci are the first ones that comes to mind.
They were creative and noble, the exact opposite of Jews.
well he isn't part of the international zionist conspiracy.....
Personal details Born Jon Stevens CorzineJanuary 1, 1947 (age 64)
Taylorville, Illinois Political party Democratic Spouse(s) Joanne Dougherty Corzine (1969–2003; divorced)
Sharon Elghanayan (2010–current) Children Jennifer Corzine
Josh Corzine
Jeffrey Corzine Residence Hoboken, New Jersey Alma mater University of Illinois (B.A.)
University of Chicago Booth School of Business (M.B.A.) Profession Financial executive, jail bird
Religion United Church of Christ[1] Signature
He can claim any "religion" he wants. I personally worship Mithras...but that has nothing to do with my ethnicity (race). Ditto Corzine. In other words, HE'S A FUCKIN' HEEB!
You said bankster, as if you meant a Jewish criminal. If that's the case I agree with you. If you mean any Jewish banker just because he is Jewish, then I wouldn't agree. Would you be so kind to clarify your meaning, please sir.
Stavisky, in France...about 75 years ago.
Jail!!! HAHAHAHAHAH thats funny...
Dudes who did this (if true) will end up at SEC
If Corzine was Hindu he would be truly fucked. I think O and Holder hate the Hindus. Just ask Raj.
O's a muslim. He was a CIA cutout in Pakistan years ago.
This is why I call black swan on MF Global. This is going to grow larger.
+++
It is going to take a real surprise to get around the Bernanke, TPPT, the TBTFs, and the rest of the central banking system. There is too much central banker control propping stuff up.
I was sure they were going to hold this thing together (bubble gum, duct tape, etc.) until the elections....now I'm not so sure.
This is going to grow larger.
That's what she said.
Money shot.
you know in the old days you really did go "from the revolver to the revolver." it really was that simple. now we need a Karl Gustav i guess.
Corzine = Madoff
I said it back then and I say it now ... there are many Madoff's out there. We just haven't found them yet. Hell, no one is out there trying to find them.
Harry Markopolous is trying. He found BONY. Of course not enough is happening there since it is mostly J6P's pension money being stolen.
It's not that there aren't a few people here and there trying to find the fraud. It's that the overarching system works against that ultimate goal. The regulatory system is so colluded with the major Wall Street players that it's effectively impotent. What's more, I personally feel that our markets are so wrought with fraud that if said fraud was completely ferreted out of the system, our economic system would cease to exist in its present form.
Oddly enough - two of the biggest whistle blowers were Greek-Americans. James Chanos and Harry Markopolous. Kudos to both of them.
Inject the damned Stox-net before they get away!
Jail ? Yah right. Thats sooo 90's...
The banks don't want a credit event in Europe and are undertaking lots of "voluntary" actions to avoid that classification.
My guess is some banksters are going to "magnanimously" return some gigantic bonuses or some symbolic act so as to keep the judges and jailors at bay. But this is where the likes of OWS may actually break through and shake the attention away from the campaign contribution crazy pols. Naw, that is just a dream on Halloween. I'll be back to normal cynic status by All Saints Day or Day of the Dead/Dan Mrtva/Dia del Muerto) or the time when life and death are at their closest reach - depending on your bent.
F- me, just f- me
Your account missing money?
Me Fuck, just Me Fuck
You all need to see Rollover! Never mind the bullshit romance between the main characters, the banking stuff incredible...puts that Andrew Ass Sorkin piece of shit to shame.
Hey, not bad. Didn't know about this one. It's not easy to dramatize numbers on screens either....but global financial melltdown sure is an attention grabber - now even more than 1981:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WI8dfFN7H1w&feature=related
Money market funds are a fucking powder keg right now too. Ouch.
That's a very eery clip to be watching on this Halloween. The Chinese could do something like this, though it would undoubtedly lead to their own economic destruction as well.
WOW
this movie has been made in 1981 ???
no one is jewier than that smiling rat faggot.
looks like horowitz from Bad Boys all growed up.
what a punchable jew.
Makes you wonder which bucket of cash is designated for Corzine's golden parachute.....
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/did-jon-corzine-just-get-121-million-golde...
Probably some sort of high level appointment to the newly re-elected Obama administration in a early 2013
No way.
Most of the back office types I've known (and always cultivated close relationships with them as a matter of good business sense) would not take actions such as that upon themselves. Always instigated by the higher ups. Then when the poop splatters, it'll unltimately be the back office guys who take the rap.
Either way, such actions approved, unapproved or done with no knowledge thereof, are the direct responsibility of the Grand Fromage.
But then again, when the GF is a past major fund raiser, Governor, Senator... oh why even bother.
It's all fucked up. Again.
Oh, there'll be frothing in the aisles, pledges to clean up the system, etc., ad hoc, vootie and nothing the fuck will change.
Who fucking cares anymore. This shit is the New Normal.
I'm not so sure about that, people are pissed. Not quite Cairo pissed but, getting there.
Indeed, it's Palpable. I hope more peole get pissed. There must be a rising broad based anger to engender any change in the kleptocracy.
WHAT, WHAT, WHAT, WHY, WHY, WHY was I screaming about Jon Corzine earlier today???!!!
He is the dirtiest POS on planet Earth!
Do I sound pissed?
Fuel for the Occupants. Now can I please witness some violence?!
It just keeps getting better.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/china-manufacturing-pmi-survey-shows-slower-growth-2011-10-31?link=MW_home_latest_news
Maybe building a few more condos to demolish would help ;-)
check out the new export orders index.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-11-01/china-pmi-drops-for-first-time-in-3-months.html
Oh my...unicorns mating with dragons.
"In a sign manufacturing growth is moderating, new orders placed at Chinese shipyards in the first nine months of the year dropped 42.8 percent, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said on its website on Oct. 20. Guangzhou Shipyard International Co. said last week its third-quarter net income dropped 45 percent from a year earlier due to higher costs and an impairment provision for shipbuilding contracts."
what's an "impairment provision"?
it provides for two ims, BiCheZ!
too funny.
http://cnbusinessnews.com/dagong-downgrades-denmarks-sovereign-credit-rating/
Watching Nightly Business Report this evening you'd think this was 1999 all over again. I suspect the short squeeze is over and this is the catalyst.
this will be a civil matter with a $200 fine (to cover admin fees)
...and no admission of wrongdoing.
Lehman 1.1
If there is any element of truth in this, which for me is not a huge leap of faith - THIS IS AN ATOM BOMB
I hate those rich republicans like Corzine..........
I think they will have to quickly arrest a bunch of people this time, because there is no political will to do another bailout. Corzine is going to be locked up and become wall streets poster boy. How else can they keep the status quo? If they are smart tomorrow, they arrest them all and ask questions later.
One more time...
WHAT, WHAT, WHAT, WHY, WHY, WHY was I screaming about Jon Corzine earlier today???!!!
He is the dirtiest POS on planet Earth!
Agreed!
Some poor client that had all their money stolen will go to jail, is my guess.
watch cramer tomorrow..........oh jon is a good man. he didnt do anything wrong. i am sick of these blogs trying to say that he is a crook. blah blah blah.......
Jimmy's a good guy. That's a fact. He's so good in fact "he can't see the evil in others." And that's a fact.
i am shocked there is gambaling in this establishment !! round up the usual suspects
This is one of those scandals where someone kills themselves...like that executive from enron ( not Kenneth lay, that guy faked his own death) that other guy Baxter killed himself....just watch some bodies are gonna start dropping
I agree, the political liability here is far too big. You've got the President on record saying Jon Corzine is his "wall street guy," and he's on the Treasury Secretary shortlist.
Meanwhile there's thousands of protestors in the streets, daily, pissed about Wall Street.
If they go after Jon Corzine, he probably knows enough to cause problems. If they don't, that's a political liability in itself. The only outs I see are getting rid of anyone who knows anything, or doing a sham prosecution that both sides are "in" on that drags out past the election.
This is a huge problem for the top levels of government and wall street. I'm surprised we're even hearing about it, it makes me suspicious that it's a ploy of some sort.
All I know is the next election will be hilarious indeed.
There won't be a next election.
Spot on again. If there is one, it will be a proper Banana Republic one, with one candidate. Only.
ORI
I would find this surprising. The current American one-party system, in which the Party runs its Red candidate against its Blue candidate, has been extremely successful in cultivating an illusion of choice and keeping people occupied with controversial, yet inconsequential, wedge issues.
Any significant deviation from this scheme would indicate more than just shit hitting the fan. It would be more like the waste stream of a factory hog farm meeting the turbine blades of a wind tunnel.
I've a feeling that this life has become a very dangerous place for Jon.
Private aircraft can be as dangerous as hot tubs.
Beware of Hotel Maids parading up and down holding placards saying "FUCK ME!"
His name is R. Budd Dwyer.
He blew his brains out on national TeeVee ... and did it over a lot less than what goes on now seemingly everyday.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xqQ5g1tgho&feature=related
In the long run, R. Budd was a good man. He failed with panache. We could use a few more like R. Budd Dwyer.
Hey man, nice shot.
They stick it in your face and let you smell what they consider wrong. That's why I say hey man, nice shot.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jC1jZAInGIY
POOF!!!
Ten bucks says IBKR saw this, turned tail, and ran out the door.
1% stealin from other 1% ers...I'm shocked
Everyone dealing with this shit company deserves to get burned and Corzine needs to go to fucking jail.
HOLY COW!! Corzine should be TORTURED! and i'm not kidding
That's only in Republican administrations.
Then there should be no impediment, since Obama's administration is functionally equivalent to a third term for George W. "Chimpy" Bush.
FIIIIIIIIIIIIIIXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX !!!!
FIIIIIIIIIIIIIIXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX !!!!
BAYYYYYYYYOOOONETTTTTSSSSSSSS !!!!!
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH !!!!!!!!!
fuck em, fuck em all.............
No more rule of law = no one is going to jail. I will take the under of no jail time.
BTW, good to hear that Rubes is still involved in the top economic team. Phew, I was really worried there but now I feel much better as to how this is going to unfold.
.....not.
No way Corzine is going to go to jail.
He'll get off somehow by pulling some strings and blaming somebody else.
He's a member of the top of the top of the PigMen/Plutocrat regime.
No doubt you are correct - presidential appointment in the offing.....
Congrats on your first post that makes sense!
Robo's mom would not let him go trick or treating unless he made sense, for once.
Exactly right Robot, + 1
Thats right, Rogue trader alert. We need a scapegoat. Nobody at the top had a clue. Blah blah blah. You know the drill.
They need a youngish trader with an African-sounding name to blame it on.
...or a youngish trader with an odor eliminator-sounding name, like Fabrice.
Did he, or can he, donate enough to Obama's re-election campaign to get himself a Presidential pardon?
I understand completely the bitter expectation of the playing dumb strategy working well for Corzine. But he may actually end up in jail, I think. Comingling is really a fundamental no-no and it is also a sin easy to comprehend: either you took the clients' money or you did not. Even former Goldmanites at the SEC and people in Congress can understand that.
Now, one other thing I would like to know is whether the $1.2bn of bond debt held by JPM is held in its own name or as administrator for its clients.
I'm sure the SEC and AG Holder are all over this and will make sure that justice is served and the peoples interests protected.........
Corzine sure is one massive MF'er.
He deserves hard time in a pound me in the ass prison, but he'll most likely be found innocent and given some job in the Fed/Government.
Again...
WHAT, WHAT, WHAT, WHY, WHY, WHY was I screaming about Jon Corzine earlier today???!!!
He is the dirtiest POS on planet Earth!
"He deserves hard time in a pound me in the ass prison"
Holy Shit! I can't stop laughing, fuckin hilarious! +1000
Finally some good news
Corzine shoud have been executed for treason for what he did in NJ
Ill settle for life in prison.
Whats that smell when the squid on the grill starts to char?
Wall St. CEO's are like Hollywood Moguls.
The more spectacular the failure..
The more they are wanted by other firms.
Just look at guys like M. Night Shyalaman. Huge Hollywood bombs, one after another.
Yet he's always at the top of the list of getting hired to direct the next big film.
Hey Robo, how did that guarantee from yesterday pan out?
Guarantee?
You mean the guarantee that if there was any selloff in stocks, there would be an instantaneous flight out of "Things" and into "Paper"???
You just got pwned by TD.
Man that TD dude sure knows how to troll financial sites. It's like he's knowledgable or something.
Unless it's TD 1 talking to TD 2.
Or worse/better yet, TD 1 talking to TD 1!
ORI
TD in this post has about a 70 percent masculine 30 percent feminine energy composition.
Robot Trader in this post has about a 60 percent feminine 40 percent masculine energy composition and his energy composition still matches robotrader.
TD has a tight highly focuses crown chakra. Robot Trader has a crown chakra that looks like a fisting porn video.
And robert downey jr is dead.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morton_Downey,_Jr.
It's only a 3mb video your dialup should handle it in about 12 minutes. It is worth the wait.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9dqJRyk0YM&feature=player_embedded
ROTFL!!!
"Yep, any news of paper manipulation or the failure of a firm like MF Global causes everyone to shoot and sell PM's first, ask questions later.
I guarantee you that most >>>retail stocks<<< tomorrow will be unfazed."
Dude.
HAW HAW HAW!!!!!
I'll bet his mother encourages him to go play in traffic.
hey robo. go play with your avatar tits and shut the fuck up already...
no, the performance anxiety guarantee 'tard: "I guarantee you that millions of hedge fund managers will be scanning furiously the "Top Percentage Gainers" list every morning in order to start dryhumping all kinds of "bargains"..."
are there really millions of hedge fund managers?
This place is brutal. I love every second of it!
True dat.
Sadly reality is what sucks anymore.
Yeah, 2.5% drop - no real effect in the market...
Yep, as I predicted, Corzine will get a high level appointment in the newly re-elected Obama administration early in 2013. Can't waste a talented guy like that behind bars, c'mon now.
Corzine for Treasury Secretary, Maddoff for FED Chairman.
They are the only ones qualified for these jobs.
M. Night Shyalaman had a few movies do pretty good but lately his movies have been all busts I guess
anybody seen milliondollarbonus...
Yeah, he had trouble pulling some satire out his ass to use for polishing his dollar sign green turd.