The United States of Corruption, More Banker Lawlessness, MF Global and Jon Corzine's Testiphony*Updated

I have been waiting for this for weeks. Corzine should have been in a jail cell.

Please allow me to get the introductory dry stuff out of the way- so that we can talk about criminal acts and the good shit. This is how the elite and connected are given every opportunity to escape. The MF Global scandal is just one more example of an executive branch that is ethically and morally bankrupt. Obama and this administration. What has happened with MF Global is actually pretty simple once we get the background out of the way. 

MF Global was a derivatives broker/agent which includes options and futures. Customers' kept money on account and traded for their accounts. MF Global traded for it's own accounts. Customer's money and MF Global money should not have been commingled. MF Global was also a primary dealer for government bonds- which has a hell of a lot more to do with the company's CEO and connections than whether or not MF Global was properly capitalized. It's CEO, Jon Corzine, was a bond trader. Ex Goldman Sachs CEO. It of course- gets worse. 

On Oct. 31, MF Global suddenly went bankrupt. Approx. 1.2 billion dollars worth of customers' money immediately went missing. Customer accounts were frozen and they lost the ability to trade out of losing positions. What happened is unprecedented. Quite succinctly, the victims and customers who had nothing to do with MF's bankruptcy, were completely screwed over. To this day, over a month later, investigators have found some money, but not most of it.

Jon Corzine. In addition to his other vast accomplishments, he is a former  Governor of New Jersey and perhaps the number one campaign bundler for President Obama. I mean quite literally, the two are best buddies. Corzine held a NY fundraiser dinner for Obama at his apartment this spring that netted about 600k for Obama.

So there you have it. Two well connected and elite politicians. Both crooked and ethically bankrupt. Both have each others' backs. It is crony capitalism at it's finest. MF Global goes bankrupt, customers lose 1.2 billion, and the CEO, Jon Corzine goes missing for five weeks. He is allowed to escape. Until Dec. 8, the day Corzine testilies testifies. Check out the well rehearsed and evasive testiphony here. http://blogs.wsj.com/deals/2011/12/08/jon-corzines-testimony-by-the-numbers/?mod=

Now I have written many times about the complete absence of the rule of law in this country. President Obama, who took an oath to uphold laws and the constitution as the head of the executive branch, seems nearly as culpable in this as Jon Corzine himself. Presidents have the express power to order investigations- well unless they involve your friends- that is. Which is why criminality, currently, is at epidemic type levels.

Was a crime committed or was this whole thing just some civil matter? Prosecutors often make those decisions. Prosecutors generally determine how to proceed and build a case. In this case, I believe there was clearly fraud and grand theft on a colossal scale. Quite simply, customer accounts and MF's accounts are two different things. Had only MF lost corporate money- this would have been civil. When sequestered customer money came up missing is when this whole thing moves from the civil realm to the criminal realm. That's when it turned into fraud. This is what happens when a crime is committed. Victims notify the appropriate law enforcement agencies as they realize their money is missing. It's law enforcement's job to determine who has jurisdiction. The appropriate agencies determine how to proceed and who to call for help. An investigation is begun.

Has anyone heard the term "criminal investigation" attached to this? Why not?

Good cops know that all crimes and especially the evidence attached to those crimes, is time sensitive. Good cops immediately identify and secure crime scenes so that evidence cannot be tampered with or destroyed. Evidence is seized before it goes missing. Accountants forensically piece together transactions, conduct audits. Cops interview hundreds of employees and potential witnesses. They subpoena and search accounts. And somewhere in the midst of all of that- somebody should have been reading Mr. Corzine a Miranda waiver. What did you do with the money, Mr. Corzine. Where is it?

"I don't know" Corzine might have replied. However, the Sarbanes Oxley act is prima facia evidence that you are not allowed to plead stupidity. Quite simply, as a CEO you are required to sign under penalty of law that your books are in order.

So what happened to the chief suspect? Isn't the goal of the police to interview the most likely suspects? Isn't the goal of the police to interview a suspect like Corzine- lock them into an initial explanation (story, alibi)- and then prove or disprove by means of an investigation?

What cop worth a shit allows the suspect to simply vanish for 5 weeks? To rehearse a beautiful story with some of the finest tacticians and lawyers that money can buy? What kind of a cop does shit like that? Well, soon to be unemployed cops, where I come from. Apparently NYC and DC investigators are not burdened with penny ante cases of a missing thousand million. They have bigger fish to fry. Maybe some kid selling pot near the DEA's office.

Here then is the big finish.

Several different crimes took place at MF Global. The entire episode was treated as some giant civil matter rather than a criminal investigation. I suspect that came about as a result of federal prosecutors or federal police agencies- acting on orders from above. Clearly, I would love to see who made those decisions. It might very well turn out to be the usual folks. The chief architect of this, a guy who bundles contributions and turns them over to the President went into hiding. Most of us would have been interviewed/interrogated for a confession and put in a jail cell. Or at least been the subject of a grand jury by now. But instead, because you are special Jon Corzine, you were allowed to go free and construct an OJ Simpson defense. Still looking for those drug dealers that slashed up Nicole.

In the brave new world, the elite are given every opportunity to steal and if caught- they are given another chance to escape. Jail is never on the menu for these banker thieves- somehow they float above the possibility of jail as though it simply does not exist for them. It pisses me off.

Because somehow they keep getting away with it. It's like a fucking epidemic.

Fraud. Conspiracy to commit fraud. Grand theft, theft by conversion. Embezzlement. Violation of Sarbanes Oxley. I am sure there are others.

*More on this coward here. http://hotair.com/archives/2011/12/09/corzine-i-didnt-tell-my-company-to-use-customer-dollars-and-if-i-did-i-didnt-mean-it/

Comments

rawmuse said…
Well, Mr. Madoff may have a differing opinion. Getting back to Mr. Corzine, what a piece of drek testimony today. This guy, one of the Masters of the Fucking Universe, got up there and admitted that he was clueless about his own gig. What's next for him? 2012 is an election year. We will see.
Anonymous said…
Jon Corzine Dodges the Fraud Question

It's as if Jon Corzine's PR machine is in top spin mode. You'll recall Jon Corzine is the former head of Goldman Sachs and former CEO of MF Global that appeared in front of Congress yesterday to answer questions about an estimated $600 million to $1.2 billion in missing money from the segregated accounts of customers of MF Global.

Yesterday and today, I heard confusion about whether or not MF Global's diverting customer funds was allowable and the possibility that customers will eventually get the money back.

Let me be clear. The diverting of customer funds from segregated accounts is not legal or allowable, and even if the money is later "found" it is fraud.

Jon Corzine was a bond trader in his past life and he says he doesn't know where the money is and that he didn't understand the details of the operations of MF Global, which appear to be a mess due to negligence or intent.

Instead of unwinding the trades, it appears that MF Global illegally wired money from customer accounts to satisfy margin calls on MF Global's trades. If that illegal activity happened, Corzine as a bond trader aware of risk and as the head of MF Global, knew it or should have known it. This should be the focus of Congress' investigation. Wire fraud is a federal crime.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/janet-tavakoli/jon-corzine-dodges-the-fr_b_1138625.html
Cheryl Pass said…
As I recall, didn't some amount in the billions completely disappear in the 2008 financial fiasco, also? Someone is making out like a bandit. Easy to think Soros, but no way to tell. The entire scene these days is as if out of some Ian Fleming novel, except we don't have Bond to save the day or MI6 to stay on the case. You are correct that Corzine should have been in jail and still in jail while an investigation of epic proportions ensues. But Holder is in charge of justice? (that is a bad joke.) and where is the SEC?? Where are the defenders of law?

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