It’s pretty clear that this guy ripped off $1B from people. When a minority in Fairfield county does a drive off from the Mobil station they put him in jail right away. Is Corzine free just because he’s an Obama buddy?
I hope not. Jon Corzine is my boy. I used to watch soccer games in a room donated by him. He has my support.
I’m not exactly sure what happened, but I think one of his rogue underlings took other ppl’s money and betted it and lost it…not clear Corzine himself is directly guilty of the crime…
actually you are mistaken. he was the CEO and under sarbanes oxley rules he is responsible, even if he didn’t commit the fraud himself. he signed off on the financials and he is liable.
There is no way that Corzine didn’t know - they borrowed money from everyone and levered up 30:1 on big bets on European bonds. If Corzine didn’t know about that, he would be apologizing all over the place about his rogue trader and the rogue trader would surely already be arrested. Lots of people on the street knew about the MF Global position. It’s preposterous to think that Corzine didn’t. Now whether Corzine knew that they took $1B from client accounts to cover the losses is not yet known, but seems really likely to me.
William Cohan had a great article on the history of Corzine. I mean he got basically pushed out of Goldman. He wrecked New Jersey. Then he went crazy levered up MF and basically pushed a strategy to get super competitive to become a Goldman. Finally he basically stole and embezzled millions from clients. Yet as you say, there is less news about Corzine out there than Joe Paterno or so.
“I’m not exactly sure what happened, but I think one of his rogue underlings took other ppl’s money and betted it and lost it….not clear Corzine himself is directly guilty of the crime……” From what I understand, prior to Corzine coming on board MFG was a pretty good broking house with not too much fancy stuff going on. Given his background as a “top” trader for Goldman in his earlier years he apparently took it upon himself to use his expertise and put on or direct the trades. Joey as for why he is not in Jail. Perhaps because he is Nobama’s biggest fundraiser (or one of them), secondly white collar crime pays big time espeically if you are a banker , and for the myriad of reasons that no one other than (Madoff, Raj Rajaratnam ) have been sent to jail. I realize some people may take offense to this but… C’est la vie!
Its more difficult to prove this type of fraud then it is to prove a normal theft or robbery. It takes a lot of time and energy to build enough evidence for an indictment for this type of crime.
That is the sad truth. Most CEOs who f*ck up claim ignorance (Dick Fuld, Tony Hayward). I bet if MF global made it big he would be hailed as a genius without regard to how reckless his actions were. But these guys can always go and start up again with a new name and people would actually give him money or a business to run. Look at the countless hedge fund managers that go bust and turn up re-branded a year later. Investors are the suckers who keep repeating the same mistakes over and over.
link violation son http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-11-01/others-pay-price-for-corzine-s-risky-revenge-william-d-cohan.html
It is absolutely because of political connections that he isn’t in Jail already. Try an experiment, go out and setup your own investment company. Take client deposits and make trades without their knowledge, and have no explanations for the whereabouts of said client funds. Next, wait and see how long it takes for the State Securities board and SEC to prosecute you under state and federal statutes. I guarantee you will be facing maximum fines and prison time. I’m with you on this Joey, justice is being made a joke out of here. But my god, look at our so called regulators conduct. Both finra and the SEC have a plethora of cases where they have intentionally destroyed/ lossed investigation case work, officials at finra just recently got into trouble for failing to disclose I don’t think this guy even lost his job. It’s wrong but it’s been going on for a long time, and it’s usually the little guys that are trying to do the right things and follow rules that are given the short end of the stick. The best you can do is be responsible for your own actions. Another question I have is why anyone would put their money at a firm with Corzine as CEO after witnessing what he did to the state of New Jersey? That’s just plain stupidity.
You’re right about one thing, and that is the moral hazard issue that is created when you allow these firms to go public and take risks with other people’s money. When these firms where limited partnerships they didn’t engage in this kind of speculative/ negligent conduct and that is of course because their own capital was at risk. I understand why glass seagall has not been reinstated (financial lobbying) but it’s just absurd that it hasn’t been. It’s injustice enough to make one sick. Go out and look at the lists of members of congress that are engaged in legislating on things that directly effect securities markets and have made trades before hand to profit from the effects of that legislation. Then scratch your chin and wonder why this isn’t considered trading on nonpublic, material information and/or considered market manipulation. Go and see how many of them are sizeable limited partners in hedge funds. I don’t see how it’s any different than what Rajaratman (sp?) got into trouble for -trading on these conduits of information. And it goes go down both sides of the isle. These folks ought to be in jail too. It makes me sick to my stomach.
Exactly. Look at the big blow ups and the financial crisis in general. When you award others for excessive risk taking this is inevitable. Limited Partnerships kept things under control because the guys on top had their own skin in the game and could lose everything they worked so hard for if excessive risk taking took them out. Now we incentive is. Leverage up and blow it out for a few quarters and you’re rewarded as a god. If it goes wrong, you negotiated an parachute into your contract, you bow out and move down the street. In the case of MF Global though it’s not just a matter of taking excessive risk, it’s commingling funds for prop trading, a clear violation of the law. Why hasn’t anything been done? Crony capitalism. It’s amazing how much we’ve learned in the past five years about the utter corruption in the system. I remember when talk of the PPT was mere murmurs of conspiracy theorists and permabears… now bloomberg has a front page piece this AM which shows the utter collusion taking place and what will happen? Nothing. Swept under the rug and forgotten. Nothing will change until drastic measures take place and frankly, I don’t see anything of substance happening soon.
Probably because he is cooperating. If I recall Madoff was running around for a bit until he was formerly prosecuted and found guilty.
I don’t like to make this political, but anyone who is a regular reader of Glenn Greenwald would not be surprised by this.
If these firms shouldn’t be public (which I agree with), why don’t people just stop buying their stock…?
Was this tongue in cheek or a legitimate question?
Looks like things are now heading in the direction of Corzine (potentially) ending up behind bars… http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2011/12/02/house-panel-to-subpoena-jon-corzine/
NOOOOO. Thats my booiiiii
It will be great to watch Corzine up there pleading the 5th. He has three appearances in December in front of Congressional committees. Why both Agriculture committes want to see him is beyond me (is it because futures contracts are important in agriculture?).