[CutePuppy]

They (Corzine, Abelow and Steenkamp) apparently decided that pleading the Fifth was not politically defendable, so they claimed the "I didn't know" version of the infamous "I can't recall" which they hope will be enough to get off the TV screens for awhile, without "lying to Congress" criminal liability.

These hearings are all for show, anyway, but this line of defence is not going to stand scrutiny with investigators, especially with other insiders contradicting them, to save themselves.

From MF Global probe uncovers shady pre-fall trades - NYP, by Mark DeCambre, 2011 December 10

< snip > ..... The trustee handling the unwinding of fallen broker dealer MF Global has uncovered some "suspicious" trades made by the company in the last days leading up to its Halloween collapse, a bankruptcy judge was told yesterday.

The trades could strike at the heart of the mystery surrounding $1.2 billion in missing customer funds - and help the army of investigators searching for the cash since the Oct. 31 Chapter 11 filing.

Just 24 hours earlier, the disgraced Wall Street titan Jon Corzine, MF's former chief executive, told lawmakers in Capitol Hill testimony that he had no idea where the cash was.

James Kobak, a lawyer for MF trustee James Giddens, did not provide any details surrounding the shady trades because there are a number of regulatory and criminal probes under way. ..... < snip >

..... Judge Glenn, setting aside creditor objections, approved the distribution of $2.2 billion to MF customers - bringing the trickling distribution to most clients to about 72 percent of their account balance. ..... < snip >

From Regulator's MF Global Priority: 'Get Back the Money' - CNBC, by Margo D. Beller, 2011 December 08

The first priority of the Commodities Futures Trading Commission is to get the money people entrusted to now-bankrupt MF Global, Commissioner Jill Sommers told CNBC Thursday.

"We're hearing from customers every day," she said. "They are losing money every day. It is our number one prority those customers get back the money that belongs to them." ..... < snip >

..... Unlike CFTC head Bart Chilton, who told CNBC Monday the agency will likely file criminal charges against MF Global, Sommers would not comment on what comes next, although she said talk of a CFTC "insurance fund" or other policy measures to further protect commodities brokers may come up for discussion "after we know exactly what happened with MF Global." ..... < snip >

Henri Steenkamp was not only the CFO, who would know, if not explicitly authorized money transfers, he was also a Chief Accounting Officer - the guy keeping the "books" and logging the transactions. He can't possibly avoid responsibility for the "sloppy" or "messy" bookkeping by claiming ignorance.

Another interesting figure to ask would be the director, Chair of the Board's Credit Risk Committee at MFGH, David P. Bolger.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2817060/posts?page=23#23

He was previously EVP at Aon, world's largest risk insurer, and likely, one of the fraud risk insurers of MF Global. If Aon is on the hook, they would not be pleased, though amount of their liability may be relatively small (if customers' accounts money is recovered)

[ken5050]

Any thoughts as to why these THREE are appearing before the Senate committee, but only Corzine appeared before the House committee?

As CutePuppy so aptly points out..the "I didn't know"..or "I can't recall" apologias ain't gonna cut it...these three are starting to remind me of Josh Steiner, the Clinton staffer who testified to Congress that he "lied to his diary." Indeed, one Senator asked if any of them had kept a diary..LOL