The trustee overseeing the wind-down of MF Global Holdings Ltd.’s brokerage said Monday that more than $1.2 billion in customer funds could be missing from the failed firm, more than double the original estimate of missing cash. [NYP]
Jon Corzine
In the 2+ weeks since MF Global filed for bankruptcy protection, much has been written about Jon Corzine’s penchant for making wild bets, which worked out fine while he was at Goldman Sachs, where risk managers are empowered to stand up to employees putting the firm/bonus pool at risk, but not so much at MF-G, where he was a man on a mission. If JSC could turn back time…he’d still be JSC and he still would’ve had that little voice, down his plums, telling him to risk it all on Eurozone debt, which in turn would’ve caused various people to freak out, start a run on the bank and drive it into its current state of affairs. Separately though? This business with the customer funds that were desegregated from the firm’s own money and which are currently “missing,” despite several manhunts and “magical mystery tours” to find it? It didn’t have to be that way and maybe it wouldn’t have been if someone had been forced to dust off his series 24 books and review the section on “customer accounts,” before cramming into a test center and sitting for the exam alongside all the other scrubs, sweating through his sweater vest over getting at least 70% correct. Read more »
Does anyone have anything they’d like to say to Jon Corzine but have had a difficult time getting in touch? You’re in luck. Geoffrey Raymond, the artist who’s done everyone from Jimmy Cayne, Dick Fuld, Alan Greenspan (collectively known as “The Greats”) to Lloyd Blankfein, Ben Bernanke and, most recently, Lenny Dykstra, has a new painting out. Titled “Corzine Agonistes,” it appears to be Raymond’s commentary on Corzine’s life post-MF Global, in which he develops eczema and gets a bowl cut. But it’s not finished without your help. Read more »
You’re Invited: Journey On Our Magical Mystery Tour To Find MF Global’s ‘Missing’ Money
By Bess Levin
Late last week, as Jon Corzine attempted to sell MF Global, it was reported that that probably wasn’t going to happen on account of the fact that those who’d taken a look at MF’s books weren’t comfortable with the approximately $600 million in customer funds that had gone “missing.” Days later, despite a manhunt for the money and a false alarm at JPMorgan, the cash still has not yet turned up. For his part, Bart Chilton, a commission at the CFTC, is pretty pissed. “We shouldn’t have to go on this magical mystery tour looking for the loot. It shouldn’t have taken this long,” he said at an energy-trading conference in Houston. “For us, job one is always–no excuses–to ensure that customer funds are held sacrosanct. In this case, as the Stones sing, we ‘got no satisfaction.’” Possibly tripping on magic, Chilton, pictured at left, concluded that: “It’s a distinct possibility, some would say probability, that somebody has done something with the money, and that it’s not going to be ‘all of a sudden discovered’ with an innocent explanation.”
So….okay. We’ll play along. Where is the “loot” and what was “done” to it? Read more »
Chaz has been taking a look at the recently departed MF Global chief’s books and there may be less money there than people had previously thought, if people didn’t know: 1) that JSC spent a lot of Corzine Coins running for senator and governor of New Jersey, 2) that divorces are expensive, and 3) that he was never worth $1 billion dollars in the first place. Read more »
Would You Be More Mad At Corzine For The Whole MF Global Thing If He Didn’t Have All That Facial Hair?
By Bess Levin
In other words, does the rational part of your brain, which wants you to be circus freak-crazy pissed at him, lose out to the part that gets one look at that beard and decides “I can’t stay mad at you”? Because that’s a theory being floated for why JSC isn’t faring too badly in the court of public opinion. Read more »
Fuzzy thinking and winging it might not lead to total disaster at a place like Goldman, which eventually worked its way out of the Long-Term Capital mess, but it could, and did, at a place like MF Global, a midsize brokerage firm where the CEO has a free hand. “That’s why the meltdown didn’t really surprise me,” says another former colleague. “What happened is typical Corzine.” [TDB/Charlie Gasparino]
Jon Corzine Will Have You Know That Each Time A Door Closes, A Bigger, More Fucking Awesome One Opens
By Bess Levin
As you may have heard, early this morning, Jon Corzine resigned from MF Global. According to the former Goldman Sachs CEO/US Senator/Governor of New Jersey, the decision to walk away from the brokerage firm was not easy to make and he remains on call to “continue to assist the company and its board in their efforts to respond to regulatory inquiries and issues related to the disposition of the firm’s assets.” What Corzine is doing right now, at this exact moment, remains a mystery, as does his location, which some people are none too happy about. CNBC, for example, has reporters staked out at all three of Corzine’s residences (Hoboken, Manhattan, Long Island) and are vowing not to leave until he emerges to cough up some answers. While we’re not yet prepared to haul him into our interrogation room and “do this the easy way or the hard way,” we, too, have a few questions. Such as: Read more »
According to Bloomberg, a search and rescue team has located $658.8 million of MF Global customer funds that went missing earlier this week. According to JPMorgan, however, while it is indeed “holding MF money,” it’s not “the missing money” you’re looking for. Go talk to Goldman, maybe they’ve seen it.
“As Interactive Brokers continued its dive into MF Global’s books, signs of exhaustion among the participants grew. J. Christopher Flowers, the MF Global investor and former Goldman executive, was spotted at the talks on Sunday wearing mismatched shoes.” [Dealbook]
[via @kaylatausche]
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