Posted on 7/9/2012
There is disturbing news coming out of brokerage firm PFG Best today. CEO Russell R. Wasendorf Sr. has allegedly attempted suicide over potential accounting irregularities at the firm. The NFA has also put PFG Best in liquidation only status, effectively shuttering the firm. PFG Best released the following information to its clients on Monday afternoon:
“Due to a recent emergency involving Russell R. Wasendorf, Sr., a suicide attempt, some accounting irregularities are being investigated regarding company accounts. PFGBEST is wholly owned by Mr. Wasendorf. Therefore, the NFA and other officials have put all funds on hold, and PFGBEST is in liquidation-only status with our clearing FCM. What this means is no customers are able to trade except to liquidate positions. Until further notice, PFGBEST is not authorized to release any funds. We will update you as any new procedures are stipulated and with any further information as it becomes available.”
UPDATE: The National Futures Association reported Monday afternoon that $220M in PFG Best's customer funds are missing.
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As usual, Ann Barnhardt, who knows her futures stuff well, spares no righteous, well earned venom for these snakes.
The Peasants are Sharpening Their Pitchforks
Posted by Ann Barnhardt - July 11, AD 2012 6:09 PM MST
I just got an email from a retired - I'll not call her elderly - lady who has had $50,000 of her meager retirement savings stolen in the PFG rape. She wants to enjoin a class action suit and go after not just PFG but also the NFA. I'll quote her now, and you can extrapolate her emotional state:
I want roasted ba**s on a plate at this point. Preferably roasted while still on a living person... Without anesthesia.
I wouldn't recommend focusing on castrations. I'd recommend focusing on suing the NFA. The PFG estate is almost certainly dry, and as with MF Global, JP Morgan isn't going to turn loose of anything.
But the NFA? Oh, that's a fat hog just begging to be stuck. Did you know that the NFA charges one cent per side on every futures and options contract traded in the United States? Stop and think about that for a moment. That is a heck of a lot of money. As a purely private organization that basically operates as the gestapo of the CFTC and of the industry cronies who sit on the boards and committees, the NFA is free to make as much money as they please - and they do. They have a massive war chest.
I also would bet that the individual board members, executives and committee members probably have some pretty hefty net worths as well.
Would some attorney please form a class and sue? I have one little old lady who is ready to rumble in the style of the old-school. Let's give these people a focused outlet for their ire.
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Lord have mercy. More blood thirsty crooks joining the corruptocrat govt. connivers .. financially raping and pillaging folks at every turn, robbing them blind. Every day, every single day, the integrity of our financial sectors are just being pummeled. Where can it all possibly end?
..Zing!
1995 : () In 1995, for example, $70,000 in contributions to the Democratic National Committee bought Gluckstern a seat at Clinton's right hand during a controversial lunch with big donors at which the president praised them for helping fund an early ad blitz through a "soft-money" loophole. More recently, Gluckstern was Zurich's point man in an attempted rescue of Peregrine Investments Holdings, a controversial Hong Kong investment bank with strong ties to the People's Republic of China. Gluckstern grew up in Amherst, Mass., the son of a psychologist and a physicist. He began his professional career as a teacher. --------January 18, 1998 47 posted on Sunday, August 07, 2005 4:59:19 AM by kcvl
People in government think they are they only smart ones so they constantly grab power to regulate. But then they can’t ever spot anything in advance because they aren’t really very smart at all.
They can’t be sued for negligence due to sovereign immunity while trial lawyers can come up with the dopiest causes of action to wreck private businesses. Government regulatory agencies that shirk their responsibility to oversee private accounts need to be liable for the failures of their work. Their employees need to face at least of the possibility of individual liability in civil court. That might get them to straighten up and fly right ahead of time instead of only going off the deep end and ruining things for everyone else with once it’s too late over reactions.
Sovereign immunity was a relevant theory once upon a time when government did little to nothing in the private economy. Now they want to not only give the dance but pick the music, determine the sizes of the punch glasses and dictate the ladies shoe selection. They need to have to pay the band now, too.
“Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), ranking Republican on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said it was “nothing short of disturbing that high-ranking officials within the SEC were spending more time looking at pornography than taking action to help stave off the events that brought our nation’s economy to the brink of collapse.”
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/federal-eye/2010/04/eye_opener_porn_and_federal_wo.html
If its bad enough even the Washington Compost can’t bury it, it’s go to be even uglier than what’s reported.
Just what exactly is it the Feds do any more for these United States?
According to the Internal Revenue Service's Criminal Investigation Division, bank accounts may have aided and abetted govt fraud and other criminal enterprises.
The "Bank Secrecy Act" was passed to protect the public from harm by identifying and detecting criminal enterprises, money laundering, tax evasion or other unlawful activities.
Under the Bank Secrecy Act, banks are required to establish, implement and maintain programs designed to detect and report suspicious activity that might be indicative of fraud, money laundering, embezzlement, and other financial crimes.
MODUS OPERANDI Joint bank accounts might be used to facilitate the transfer funds....may pay for personal and private expenses, credit cards, real estate sunsidies and vehicle purchases.
To cover their tracks, fake invoices might be created to show that money deposited into accounts was being used for legitimate govt purposes. The scheme might be advanced by issuing statements of payments from other sources that actually covered the transfer of funds for their own use.
L/E is directed to get ahold of: (1) copies of checks, (2) wire transfers, (3) account statements, (4) invoices, (5) bills, (6) delivery tickets, (7) correspondence including e-mail, contracts, loan agreements, and, (8) any other books or records.
L/E should also explore (a) monies paid to brokers, sub-brokers, (b) family members, (c) mortgage brokers, (d) financial managers, and, (e) real estate agents, brokers, and developers.
L/E should scrutinize bank accounts for suspicious activites: (A) large deposits, (B) funds transferred from one account into another, (C) request for withdrawals.
Bank records might also show diversions to secret LLC other accounts, to operate personal businesses. Fraud can also be facilitated by withdrawals, gift cards purchases, credit card purchases and intrabank transfers from business accounts into personal accounts.
A huge tipoff is whether bank withdrawals support luxurious lifestyle including payments for real estate, investment and stock holdings, jewelry, luxury vehicles, resort travel and gifts from luxury outlets for wives and mistresses.
Bravo Sierra!