It defies imagination and common sense that these "financial geniuses" told Congress they dont know where the missing money went----$1.2 billion transferred in and out of MF Global continually.....all done by wire transfer------called EFT's. MF Global, and its ISP, have a clear record of when, where, and how much for EACH wire transfer......like your cell phone bill.
Each EFT is listed, the number dialed, the time of the call, and the duration.
Corzine and Abelow are making a huge mistake by underestimating the anger of those they left holding the bag----they stole from their investors and socked the state of NJ with massive debt, bankrupted several state agencies, and left the state pension fund 25% lighter, Billions of NJ tax assets are unaccounted for.
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SO WHERE IS THE MISSING MF GLOBAL MONIES? Time to connect the dots
<><> Corzine is a well-rounded operator. As Governor, he left the state of NJ $8 billion in debt. $8 billion went missing from one state agency....other agencies like UI and the Transporation Trust Fund went bankrupt with no explanation why. The $82 Billion state pension fund lost about 25%.
<><> OBAMA-CORZINE CONNECTION Right before Corzio’s reelection, Obama sent $17.5 Billion "stimulus" to NJ-—which promptly vanished. VP Biden is on record as having asked Corzine for financial advice upon taking office----Biden has a son and a brother involved with the Stanford offshore fraud (Stanford is in jail.)
<><> MF Global principal Brad Abelow was Corzine’s appointee as NJ Treasury Secy——controlling ALL NJ assets. Gov and Secy started an investment business——but the two “financial geniuses” said they did not know this was illegal.
<><> MF Global principal Chris Flowers handled Sen/Gov Corzine’s “blind assets” ......Flowers led the takeover of a Japanese bank for Corzine——while Sen Corzine passed a bill giving the bank a US tax break......said he "did not know" the bill benefitted him.
<><><><> All three of the above-named MF Global principals are G/S cronies.
<><> Corzine registered three corporations in super-secret financial haven——Delaware——BEFORE taking office.
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<><> Ponzi king Bernie Madoff made a generous contribution to Corzine’s gubernatorial campaign.
<><> When he went to jail, investigators found Madoff had stashed billions offshore---into a labyrinth of financial entities.
Some $8.9 billion was funneled to Madoff through a dozen so-called feeder funds based in Europe, the Caribbean and Central America, ......a labyrinth of hedge funds, management companies and service providers that, to unsuspecting outsiders, seemed to compose a formidable system of checks and balances.
But the purpose of Madoff's complex architecture was just the opposite: the feeder funds provided different modes for directing money to Madoff in order to avoid scrutiny and generate more fees.
<><><><> Then-Gov Corzine made several highly suspicious trips to Israel when he had no political reason to be there. Israel is the only place in the world where you can take a suitcase full of money to a bank-— and nobody asks where it came from.
Israel also has many businesses in NJ funded with grants from NJ state tax coffers-----as well as a NJ-based Israeli Chamber of Commerce (perfect vehicles for money laundering).
All of these entities need rigorous investigation.
One of the problems is that most people are confused because they don't understand the difference or distinguish between the MF Global Holdings (a holding company that has declared bankruptcy, and which was a parent company of its main operating arm, MF Global brokerage).
Louis Freeh is a trustee of the holding company and is unwinding it now, its accounts with JPM are not the same as the brokerage's own trading account and brokerage's segregated customer accounts. James Giddens is unwinding the brokerage under SIPA rules, and is investigating the trail of money missing from segregated customers' accounts.
The article simply confirms that there were no problems with the holding company accounts at JP Morgan (a transfer agent and clearinghouse for both MFG entities) which was expected and is not at all surprising or unusual. In fact, the transfers (EFTs, of course) were only going one way, to MFGH, not from it, so it had no relationship whatsoever to the brokerage segregated accounts. Like I said, this part is a non-story.
For details, see: - FR, post #22, 2012 February 15 / WSJ, by Patrick Fitzgerald, 2012 February 01
Everything is done by computer, and every withdraw from a customer account goes to another account are monitored. How can the trustees ... not find who illegal hit the keyboard to make the computer withdraw from customer accounts.
Most of the transactions from segragated accounts in the last few days that are deemed to be potentially illegal, were traced to the English MF subsidiary or other banks in the U.K. Money travels further than just from point A to point B, and then suddenly "stopping." That's why bankruptcy court authorised the hiring of law firm in the U.K. for investigation and representation for clawback of illegal transfers. It's going to take a while, and expenses are going to be substantial.
The bankruptcy judge is paying a truckload of money for accountants and lawyers.
Yes, that's a very lucrative line of business. Just look at Irving Picard, a Madoff's estate clawback trustee who already billed more than half a billion dollars for his firm by suing everyone in sight under the bogus "knew or should have known" / "wilfully blind" legal premise for which he has no enforcement power and has already been rebuked more than once by bankruptcy court judge.
Ref: Madoff trustee claims Mets owners were 'wilfully blind' to Ponzi scheme but loved profits - NYP, by Mark Decambre, 2012 February 11
From: Madoff victim helping those who lost money with New Mexico swindler - NYP, 2012 February 19
While many of the lawsuits are against big money investors and accused insiders who made huge profits over the years with interest rates of 20 percent or more on loans to Vaughan's real estate company, others go after much smaller investors, including one case that seeks to regain just over $4,000 in interest earnings from a $10,000 investment. The suits claim the victims knew or should have known the rates of return were unrealistically high. While some have settled the claims, others say they are being victimized twice. ..... < snip > A noted New York lawyer and Ponzi scheme victim of Bernie Madoff has signed on to help victims of a New Mexico swindler fight a flurry of so-called claw-back lawsuits that seek to recapture some of the $75 million lost by 600 investors around the country. More than 100 suits had been filed by the end of last week as the trustee for the bankruptcy case of Doug Vaughan worked to meet a deadline Wednesday for making any claims against people who may have profited from their investments in promissory notes with Vaughan and his Vaughan Company Realtors.
The real problem is it may very well be that what MFG did was perfectly legal. For instance, if you have a margin account - you have borrowed from your broker - the broker can legally pledge 140% of what you have borrowed of your assets held in the account (in the US, in England, it is unlimited). And if MFG offered the assets as repo's, apparently the lender owns the pledged assets upon declaration of insolvency by the counter party.
Actually, not really. While both the client and the broker may legally "pledge" more capital than they have on their own accounts ("on margin") that doesn't transfer one dime more than that from segregated customer account to the broker... Neither does CFTC Rule 1.25 or "hypothecation". Money is not missing due to the legal use of customers' "margin accounts," it's missing because of illegal commingling by MFG of the customers' funds for their own trading accounts to cover MFG's margin calls, increased capital requirement demands from regulators and redemptions.
If that were the case, nobody would have money in the "margin account" and risk "legally" losing money to their broker gambling with their money. And, to date, nobody has lost the money simply by having the "margin account" at other brokers or investment firms (including bankrupt, like much larger Lehman Bros.), before Jon Corzine and his "band of brothers" at MFG stole (OK, allegedly illegally transferred) the money from segregated customers' accounts, to cover their own margin calls and redemptions.
The laws specifically state that it is illegal, the type of account ("cash" or "margin") doesn't figure into it. As a matter of fact, it is legal responsibility of the firm to cover the settlement if/when the customer can't cover the margin on his bet, (presumably) because the firm should have mnonitored and adjusted (raised) the margin requirements for the account, not the other way around.