Forum Post: Here Comes The Politicization Of MF Global: Former Goldmanite Gensler Says MF Failure Example Of "Freedom To Fail"
Posted 12 years ago on Nov. 3, 2011, 3:40 p.m. EST by MonetizingDiscontent
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Here Comes The Politicization Of MF Global: Former Goldmanite Gensler Says MF Failure Example Of "Freedom To Fail"
We find it supremely ironic that one former Goldmanite, in this case the CFTC's Gary Gensler, takes credit (doing the people's work this time?) for allowing the failure of what is now a documented criminal enterprise, MF Global, run by another former Goldmanite, Jon Corzine, and claiming this was nothing less than an example of "Freedom To Fail".
The NYT quotes Gensler: "This was an example of a financial institution having the freedom to fail,” he said in response to questioning from Senator Carl Levin, the Michigan Democrat who chairs the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. “I don’t think there’s any taxpayer money behind this.”"
No, Gary, there is just client money behind this. Anywhere between $700 million and $1.5 billion. Money that was stolen, and had MF global been bailed out, you, the CFTC and the US Government would have been complicit in a prima facie felony. So please - no need for the pathetic pandering to the lowest common denominator that only years of Goldman tenure can hone to this level of perfection.
The only question is whether the CFTC, together with that other corrupt regulator which oddly enough is not yet run by a third Goldman alum, has the "freedom to jail."
Continue Reading the rest of this article Here:
MF Global Client Theft Estimate Doubled To $1.5 Billion?
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/mf-global-client-theft-estimate-doubled-15-billion
Even as we hear rumblings that the MF fire is spreading, and the associated auditor of the now infamous former Primary Dealer is about to get in serious hot water, the bankrupt company itself continues to dig itself an ever deeper grave. Because according to a just filed motion by the MF Global liquidating trustee, it seems that the gross criminal activity by the company may have been orders of magnitude bigger than anyone has expected.
To wit: "As a result of the apparent segregation violations and the suspension of clearing privileges, more than 150,000 customer accounts essentially were frozen on October 31, 2011, of which more than 50,000 accounts were regulated commodities customer accounts.
The CME estimates that MFGI’s current segregated funds requirement is approximately $5.45 billion. Moreover, the total amount of MFGI customer segregated funds on deposit at the CME is approximately $2.5 billion, and the clearing-level segregated collateral is approximately $1.5 billion or approximately 60 percent of the MFGI customer segregated funds on deposit at the CME."
Doing some quick inverse addition and we get a (w)hole of $5.45 less $2.5 less $1.5 or $1.45 billion. In other words, the theft by MF Global was not stealing hunderds of millions form its customers: it has stolen a whopping $1.5 billion!
For those confused, this is not a rogue loss of $1.5 billion, something which was enough to send UBS' Kweku to prison. This is outright theft resulting from illegally commingled accounts. Our only question is will $1.5 billion in theft be enough for the first real perp walk of an Obama-friendly Wall Street executive?
And here is Reuters with a revised lowball. Remember this number was supposed to be zero earlier today. (link below)
Continue Reading at: http://www.zerohedge.com/news/mf-global-client-theft-estimate-doubled-15-billion
When all is said and done, the shortfall will be well over a billion.
Someone Is Going To Jail For This: MF Global Caught Stealing Hundreds Of Millions From Customers?
Heart Stopping News: MF Global did Not Separate Customer Accounts:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/11/01/us-cme-mf-idUSTRE7A02WJ20111101
(Reuters) - MF Global Holdings Ltd, the futures broker that filed for bankruptcy protection on Monday, did not separate its customers' accounts from the firm's funds as required by law, its main exchange regulator said on Tuesday.
"CME has determined MF Global is not in compliance with Commodity Futures Trading Commission and CME customer segregation requirements," CME Group Inc Chief Executive Craig Donohue said. Futures brokers must keep customer accounts separate from each other and from the firm's own money.
Donohue said CME is looking into exactly what happened at MF Global.
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