The Course of Crime - Corzine’s Crime of the Century

The fix is always in when politicians fund their fixes. With bought off 'friends in high places,' who needs friends? MF Global, how appropriately named. m/r

Corzine’s Crime of the Century - Bruce Bialosky - National Review Online
FEBRUARY 5, 2013 by Bruce Bialosky
How a top Obama bundler broke a never-broken law of commodities trading.

Last week, a court approved a settlement deal among commodities firm MF Global’s bankruptcy trustees that will reimburse its customers for 93 percent of the value of their accounts, from which about $1.6 billion had disappeared during the firm’s bankruptcy. But even if they eventually see 100 percent of their funds returned, the firm’s misappropriation of customer funds under the leadership of Jon Corzine will remain a shocking example of financial malfeasance. It looks like Corzine could have gotten away with the crime of the century.

If you aren’t familiar with Jon Corzine, he is the man Vice President Joe Biden called first during the financial crisis because he considered Corzine “the smartest guy I know about the economy and finance.” Corzine spent much of his career at Goldman Sachs, becoming chairman in 1994. After Goldman Sachs went public, Corzine was forced out of the chairmanship, but he left with a $250–400 million payout. He quickly parlayed that money into a New Jersey U.S. Senate seat, and then the governorship of New Jersey in January 2006, before losing to Chris Christie in the next election.

Three short months later, he took over as chairman and CEO at MF Global, a commodities broker. Corzine planned to transform MF Global into an investment bank that some thought could become the next Goldman Sachs. That is where Corzine began to run into trouble.

Most investors have their accounts at either a bank or a traditional brokerage house. Banks have offered deposit insurance for the past 80 years, and brokerages have done so for the past 40. Since such institutions can dip into investors’ funds at any time, they pay fees to a government-operated insurance fund for protection in the case of bankruptcy. ...

-go to link-