Max Keiser on Corzine [Archive] - Gold-Silver Forums

keehah

18th December 2011, 09:06 AM

Exchange exec says Corzine knew of $175M loan to MF Global affiliate, contradicting Corzine (http://www.canadianbusiness.com/article/61853--exchange-exec-says-corzine-knew-of-175m-loan-to-mf-global-affiliate-contradicting-corzine)
By Daniel Wagner,Marcy Gordon, The Associated Press | December 13, 2011

CME Group Inc. Executive Chairman Terrence Duffy told a Senate panel he had received information that Corzine knew about a transfer of $175 million from customer accounts.

Corzine, a former senator, has testified that he didn't know any customer money was missing until Oct. 30, the day before MF Global became the eighth-largest bankruptcy in U.S. history. About $1.2 billion of customer money was unaccounted for when the company collapsed.

According to Duffy, an MF Global employee told a CME auditor that "Mr. Corzine was aware" of the loan.

Duffy told the Senate Agriculture Committee that he's referred the matter to the Justice Department and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which are investigating MF Global's failure. Duffy said he received the information last weekend from CME Group attorneys who are investigating the matter.

Corzine and Steenkamp said that given what's now known, they wouldn't have signed the firm's last quarterly financial statement attesting that its internal financial controls were adequate.

Under a 2002 anti-corporate-fraud law that Corzine co-wrote as a U.S. senator, the CEO and chief financial officer of public companies must personally certify the accuracy of their company's financial statements. It can be a violation of the law for executives to sign a false statement.

Other than the theft of hundreds of millions from private accounts and destruction of economic system fundamentals, its kind of like Clinton saying he did not have sexual relations with that woman after passing a law saying cock-sucking, dress-sperming and cigar dildoing are called sexual relations.

All three witnesses said they don't know where the missing money is. Yet their phrasing varied in subtle ways that could have legal distinctions.

Corzine said he did not direct anyone to "misuse" clients' money.

Abelow said he does not recall "any conversation about customer funds being used for anything other than their intended purpose."
Steenkamp's stance was more sweeping. He said he did not "authorize, approve or know of any transfers of customer funds" out of their accounts.

But several senators expressed frustration with the executives' insistence that they didn't know who might have authorized the transfer of clients' money.

"Funds don't simply disappear," said Kansas Sen. Pat Roberts, the committee's top Republican. "Someone took action, whether legal or illegal, to move that money. And the effect of that decision is being felt across the countryside."

Roberts said MF Global violated "a sacred rule of the futures industry," under which customers' money remains segregated from the firm's.

"You don't break the glass in regards to segregated funds," Roberts said.

As the senators drilled into who might have authorized the transfer of funds, Corzine pointed to the role of the firm's treasury operations department.

"The people who headed that were probably closest to the scene of the action," he said. Roberts noted that the department ultimately reported to Abelow.

The Senate panel is one of three congressional committees to have issued subpoenas to compel Corzine's testimony on the issue. It marked the first time a former senator has been subpoenaed by his former peers in more than 100 years, according to the Senate historian's office.

Many lawmakers have heard from farmers, ranchers and small business owners in their states who are missing money that was deposited with the firm. Agricultural businesses use brokerage firms like MF Global to help reduce their risks in an industry vulnerable to swings in oil, corn and other commodity prices.
'Nice' work Corzine. After then actual theft of people's accounted money, not only was your firm's work fundamental in destroying the western financial system, it was also focused to dramatically increase the risk of world wide food shortages.

MF Global didn't list the European debt on its balance sheet for all to see. Instead, those holdings were shifted to the company's "off-balance sheet," deep in its financial statements. Some separate filings with regulators excluded the European debt entirely.