[4]Remember Peregrine Financial, the firm that just like MF Global, ended up vaporizing $200 million in client money after it was revealed that its suicide-challenged CEO Russell Wasendorf was stealing operating cash for two decades under the nose of the CFTC? Yes? Good. Because in four days, said CEO will be relaxing in the comfort of his own home. It seems odd to us that the man who caused hundreds of clients to lose up to all of their life's savings, will be hanging out on his leather sofa, if only until such time as a one-way first class ticket to a non-extradition country is consummated. But who knows: perhaps this is all part of the "New Fairness Normal" where fraud and crime is if not rewarded, then certainly ignored.
From Reuters [5]:
Peregrine Financial Group Chief Executive Russell Wasendorf Sr., who has confessed to stealing millions of dollars from clients, will be released from a county jail after he pleads guilty on September 17 to mail fraud, lying to regulators and embezzling customer money, according to a judge's order.
Wasendorf, 64, will stay in the home of an Iowa pastor pending sentencing for the crimes, the order said.
Wasendorf attempted suicide on July 9 near the headquarters of his Cedar Falls, Iowa, brokerage and left a signed confession of a 20-year-long fraud.
The search continues for the money he stole. Former clients are still unable to access funds frozen since the firm's bankruptcy on July 10.
Well, we now know where Mr. Wasendorf will not be in one month: prison. We know tentatively where he will be: somewhere in the south Pacific, on a private island purchased with a portion of the $200 million in stolen money. It is possible that that other hedge fund capital raising expert-cum-vaporisateur extraordinaire Jon Corzine may be in the vicinity. Who knows.