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11/05/2011
http://www.mfglobal.com/capital-markets/commodities/metals/execution-services
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Metals: Execution Services
Meeting the execution needs of our clients is at the core of our business at MF Global. By combining our broad client base with our deep involvement in commodities markets around the world, MF Global is able to provide clients with access to an unsurpassed pool of liquidity. We enable clients to trade at the world’s major exchanges offering metals products as well as in the vast over-the-counter market.
LME
As one of the select Ring Dealing members on the London Metal Exchange (LME), MF Global delivers a full range of futures and options market-making, brokerage and clearing services for a host of metals including copper, aluminum, zinc, lead, tin, nickel, aluminum alloy, molybdenum, cobalt, steel billet, polypropylene and polyethylene. The New York and London desks work in close coordination to provide 24-hour service and international coverage for producers, processors, consumers and dealers of metals in all geographical regions, as well as for institutional investors.COMEX and NYMEX
As a clearing member of the Commodity Exchange (COMEX) and the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX), MF Global provides comprehensive futures and options brokerage and clearing services for copper, gold and silver on COMEX, as well as platinum and palladium on NYMEX.OTC Products
MF Global offers a range of over-the-counter (OTC) products and contracts tailored to the needs of commercial hedgers. Our OTC products include:- Revenue and expense swaps (fixed for floating month-average liquidations) that replicate physical pricing terms
- Average rate Asian options
- LME versus COMEX copper arbitrage
- Margin and premium financing programs
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There are some preliminary reports about Bill Clinton’s purported $50,000-a-month retainer — paid out to Teneo, a firm where he is chairman of the board — from his friend Jon Corzine’s now broke MF Global. It reminds of Newt Gingrich’s getting $30,000 a month for his work as a “historian” for Freddie Mac up until the eve of its crack-up. One comes away with a sort of despair that our most prominent politicians, who have already done quite well in private and public life, still cannot refrain from cashing in on their contacts for even more cash.
The symptoms are depressingly the same: the big retainer fee, the financial insolvency of the clients, the lack of financial expertise on the part of the consultant, the apparent lack of any quantifiable value in the service rendered, the euphemisms employed to disguise the lobbying efforts (Clinton was supposed to improve the “image” of CEO Corzine, rather than be an historian of the company). http://dealbreaker.com/2011/12/
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Corzine’s Loss May Be Soros’s Gain (WSJ)
Investor George Soros’s family fund bought about $2 billion of European bonds formerly owned by MF Global Holdings Ltd., the very debt that helped force the securities firm to file for bankruptcy protection Oct. 31, according to people close to the matter.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/soros-bought-2-billion-ex-180610384.html
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A number of large investors passed on the bonds but, according to people close to the matter quoted by the Wall Street Journal, Soros's interest was piqued and he bought around $2 billion of the bonds at a level below the market price at the time.
A spokesman for Soros declined to give details about the company's positions, the paper said.
"While our firm is always in the market, we have a policy of not disclosing
details of our positions," the spokesman said.
KPMG told the paper that the overwhelming majority of the European sovereign debt portfolio was liquidated by LCH before the second week in November.
http://teneoholdings.com/our-team/board/tony-blair
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http://teneoholdings.com/our-team/bio/william-burck
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Mr. Burck also served as a senior official in the Criminal Division of the Department of Justice and was an Assistant United States Attorney in the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, where he investigated and prosecuted a variety of white collar and other criminal cases. He was a member of the trial team in United States v. Martha Stewart, and was lead prosecutor in a number of jury trials.
Mr. Burck received his B.A. from Yale University and his J.D. from Yale Law School, where he was Editor-in-Chief of the Yale Law Journal. He studied international relations and political economy in graduate school at Harvard University. He served as a law clerk to the Honorable Anthony M. Kennedy of the Supreme Court of the United States and the Honorable Alex Kozinski of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2011/12/02/us-mfglobal-accounting-idUKTRE7B02PS20111202
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In MF Global's case, the off-balance-sheet accounting itself didn't cause the firm's downfall, but it allowed MF Global to use borrowed money to make billions of dollars in ultimately catastrophic bets on European sovereign debt - and obscured the risk those bets posed to the company.
http://www.examiner.com/finance-examiner-in-national/jon-corzine-could-be-indicted-under-sarbanes-oxley-rules-for-mf-global
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Sarbanes-Oxley requires him as the CEO of a company to (1) guarantee that effective risk controls and rules are in place and (2) monitor their compliance. It renders failure to do so -- that is, the old-fashioned "I didn't know" defense that was routinely used after 2000-era failures in the Internet space -- a felony.http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-12-09/hsbc-sues-mf-global-trustee-over-850-000-worth-of-gold.html
Now of course Mr. Corzine is entitled to the presumption of innocence and he is entitled to a trial before being pronounced guilty, but the law on this point is clear: Executives, the CEO and CFO in particular, are required under Sarbanes-Oxley to factually know about matters such as this and they are required to attest to that knowledge -- and the presence of appropriate and sufficient risk controls under penalty of felony indictment.
It appears that Mr. Corzine has admitted in front of a Congressional Committee that he does not know, and therefore this appears to be a prima-facie admission that he is in direct violation of this law. – Market Ticker.org
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Dec. 9 (Bloomberg) -- An HSBC Holdings Plc unit sued the MF Global Inc. brokerage trustee to establish whether he or another person is the rightful owner of gold bars worth about $850,000 and silver bars underlying contracts between the brokerage and a client.
http://bullionbullscanada.com/index.php?option=com_kunena&Itemid=122&func=view&catid=12&id=14640
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http://commoditycustomercoalition.org/?gclid=CM-f8O_E9qwCFQh9hwodQTTWTw
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http://www.scribd.com/doc/75042430/Order-Signed-on-1272011-Directing-SI-Mg-Order-GENERIC
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http://www.sec.gov/news/press/2011/secinfo-mfglobal.htm
http://sgtreport.com/2011/12/the-gold-rehypothecation-unwind-begins-hsbc-sues-mf-global-over-disputed-ownership-of-physical-gold/
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The basement of 4 World Trade Center housed vaults used to store gold and silver bullion. Published articles about precious metals recovered from the World Trade Center ruins in the aftermath of the attack mention less than $300 million worth of gold. All such reports appear to refer to a removal operation conducted in late October of 2001. On Nov. 1, Mayor Rudolph Giuliani announced that "more than $230 million" worth of gold and silver bars that had been stored in a bomb-proof vault had been recovered. A New York Times article contained:
There appear to be no reports of precious metals discovered between November of 2001 and the completion of excavation several months later. Assuming that the above reports described the value of precious metals in the vaulst before the attack, and that the $230 million mentioned by Giuliani represented the approxmiate value of metals recovered, it would seem that at least the better part of a billion dollars worth of precious metals went missing. (It is not plausible, of course, that whatever destroyed the towers vaporized gold and silver, which are dense, inert metals that are extremely unlikely to participate in chemical reactions with other materials.)
An article in The Sierra Times suggests that gold was recovered from two trucks in a tunnel under 5 World Trade Center, giving rise to suspicions that the trucks were being used to remove the gold from the vaults before the South Tower fell. 4 However, this report may have been based on an erroneous reading of other reports that describe the removal of crushed vehicles from a tunnel under 5 WTC in order to gain access to the vaults under 4 WTC to remove their contents. 5
Why is there this huge discrepancy between the value of gold and silver reported recovered, and the value reported to have been stored in the vaults? There are a number of possible explanations, from outright theft using the attack as cover, to insurance fraud. Until there is a genuine investigation that probes all the relevant facts and circumstances surrounding the attack, we can only speculate.
http://911review.com/motive/gold.html
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By September of 2003, 9-11 Research had published the following story about the discrepancy between the value of precious metals reportedly stored in the Comex vaults beneath WTC 4 and the value reportedly recovered in late 2001 following the attack. (The September, 2003 version of the page is archived on archive.org.)
http://bullionbullscanada.com/index.php?option=com_kunena&Itemid=122&func=view&catid=12&id=14640
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http://commoditycustomercoalition.org/?gclid=CM-f8O_E9qwCFQh9hwodQTTWTw
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http://www.scribd.com/doc/75042430/Order-Signed-on-1272011-Directing-SI-Mg-Order-GENERIC
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UNITED STATES BANKRUPTCY COURTSOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK
In re:MF GLOBAL INC.,Debtor.Case No. 11-2790 (MG) SIPA
ORDER DIRECTING SIPA TRUSTEE TO FILE FURTHER DISCLOSURESCONCERNING DISINTERESTEDNESS
A P P E A R A N C E S:
HUGHES HUBBARD & REED LLP
Counsel for James W. Giddens, Trustee for the SIPA Liquidation of MF Global Inc.
One Battery Park PlazaNew York, New York 10004By: Anson Frelinghuysen, Esq.James B. Kobak, Jr., Esq.Christopher K. Kiplok, Esq.Jeffrey S. Margolin, Esq.ROBERT MARTIN
Pro Se
3 Kenwood RoadSaddle River, New Jersey 07458MITCH FINE
Pro Se
575 San Pablo AvenueEmeryville, California 94608-3325
MARTIN GLENNUNITED STATES BANKRUPTCY JUDGE
James W. Giddens (“Giddens” or the “Trustee”), the liquidation trust
ee of MF Global
Inc. (“MFGI”), has moved the Court to determine the disinterestedness of the Trustee and his
counsel, Hughes Hubbard & Reed LLP (
“
HHR
”
). (ECF Doc. #45). Giddens is a partner inHHR. The Trustee and HHR were selected for their respective roles in this SIPA liquidation
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SIPA Liquidation of MF Global, Inc.
INFORMATION FOR INVESTORS
The Securities and Exchange Commission, Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and other regulators have been closely monitoring developments affecting MF Global, Inc., a jointly registered futures commission merchant and broker-dealer.
Following anticipation of a transaction that would include the transfer of customer accounts to another firm, MF Global informed regulators on October 31 that the transaction had not been agreed to, and reported possible deficiencies in customer futures segregated accounts held at the firm.
The SEC and CFTC determined that a bankruptcy proceeding led by the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC) is the safest and most prudent course of action to protect customer accounts and assets.
SIPC initiated the liquidation of MF Global under the Securities Investor Protection Act (SIPA) on October 31. The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York entered an order granting SIPC’s request for SIPA protections for customers of MF Global. The court appointed James W. Giddens as trustee for the liquidation, and Hughes Hubbard & Reed LLP was appointed as counsel to the trustee.
A website has been established by the trustee to provide information pertaining to the SIPA liquidation of MF Global.
Investors with questions related to the MF Global proceeding can call or e-mail the trustee:
- 1-888-236-0808 (U.S. callers)
- 1-503-597-5173 (international callers)
- MFGITrustee@hugheshubbard.com
http://www.sec.gov/news/press/2011/secinfo-mfglobal.htm
http://sgtreport.com/2011/12/the-gold-rehypothecation-unwind-begins-hsbc-sues-mf-global-over-disputed-ownership-of-physical-gold/
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2 comments to MUST READ: The Gold “Rehypothecation” Unwind Begins: HSBC Sues MF Global Over Disputed Ownership Of Physical Gold
http://911research.wtc7.net/wtc/evidence/gold.htmlExcerpt:
Missing Gold
Precious Metals in WTC 4 Vault: Only a Fraction Recovered?
 |
| This image is found on the PBS.org website companion for the television documentary America Rebuilds under the section Uncovering Property. The page, entitled A Treasure in Silver and Gold, describes the vault as two levels of 3,000 square feet each. See the source for the full-sized image. The page credits images to Leslie E. Robertson and Associates. |
The basement of 4 World Trade Center housed vaults used to store gold and silver bullion. Published articles about precious metals recovered from the World Trade Center ruins in the aftermath of the attack mention less than $300 million worth of gold. All such reports appear to refer to a removal operation conducted in late October of 2001. On Nov. 1, Mayor Rudolph Giuliani announced that "more than $230 million" worth of gold and silver bars that had been stored in a bomb-proof vault had been recovered. A New York Times article contained:
Two Brinks trucks were at ground zero on Wednesday to start hauling away the $200 million in gold and silver that the Bank of Nova Scotia had stored in a vault under the trade center ... A team of 30 firefighters and police officers are helping to move the metals, a task that can be measured practically down to the flake but that has been rounded off at 379,036 ounces of gold and 29,942,619 ounces of silver .. 1
Reports describing the contents of the vaults before the attack suggest that nearly $1 billion in precious metals was stored in the vaults. A figure of $650 million in a National Real Estate Investor article published after the attack is apparently based on pre-attack reports. Unknown to most people at the time, $650 million in gold and silver was being kept in a special vault four floors beneath Four World Trade Center. 2
An article in the TimesOnline gives the following rundown of precious metals that were being stored in the WTC vault belonging to Comex. 3 - Comex metals trading - 3,800 gold bars weighing 12 tonnes and worth more than $100 million
- Comex clients - 800,000 ounces of gold with a value of about $220 million
- Comex clients - 102 million ounces of silver, worth $430 million
- Bank of Nova Scotia - $200 million of gold
There appear to be no reports of precious metals discovered between November of 2001 and the completion of excavation several months later. Assuming that the above reports described the value of precious metals in the vaulst before the attack, and that the $230 million mentioned by Giuliani represented the approxmiate value of metals recovered, it would seem that at least the better part of a billion dollars worth of precious metals went missing. (It is not plausible, of course, that whatever destroyed the towers vaporized gold and silver, which are dense, inert metals that are extremely unlikely to participate in chemical reactions with other materials.)
An article in The Sierra Times suggests that gold was recovered from two trucks in a tunnel under 5 World Trade Center, giving rise to suspicions that the trucks were being used to remove the gold from the vaults before the South Tower fell. 4 However, this report may have been based on an erroneous reading of other reports that describe the removal of crushed vehicles from a tunnel under 5 WTC in order to gain access to the vaults under 4 WTC to remove their contents. 5
Why is there this huge discrepancy between the value of gold and silver reported recovered, and the value reported to have been stored in the vaults? There are a number of possible explanations, from outright theft using the attack as cover, to insurance fraud. Until there is a genuine investigation that probes all the relevant facts and circumstances surrounding the attack, we can only speculate.
http://911review.com/motive/gold.html
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Precious Metals Stored Beneath the World Trade Center
One of the less noted of the possible motives for the attack was the creation of diversion in order to steal hundreds of millions of dollars worth of precious metals.By September of 2003, 9-11 Research had published the following story about the discrepancy between the value of precious metals reportedly stored in the Comex vaults beneath WTC 4 and the value reportedly recovered in late 2001 following the attack. (The September, 2003 version of the page is archived on archive.org.)
| e x c e r p t | ||
| title: Missing Gold | ||
| authors: Jim Hoffman | ||
Missing GoldA King's Ransom in Precious Metals Seems to have DisappearedThe basement of 4 World Trade Center housed vaults used to store gold and silver bullion. Published articles about precious metals recovered from the World Trade Center ruins in the aftermath of the attack mention less than $300 million worth of gold. All such reports appear to refer to a removal operation conducted in late October of 2001. On Nov. 1, Mayor Rudolph Giuliani announced that "more than $230 million" worth of gold and silver bars that had been stored in a bomb-proof vault had been recovered. A New York Times article contained: 2
There appear to be no reports of precious metals discovered between November of 2001 and the completion of excavation several months later. It would seem that at least the better part of a billion dollars worth of precious metals went missing. It is not plausible that whatever destroyed the towers vaporized gold and silver, which are heavy malleable metals that are extremely unlikely to participate in chemical reactions with other materials. http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2011/11/brokerage-firm-mf-global-filed.html Excerpt: During the 2008 election cycle (the last full cycle before Corzine joined the company), Democrats received 68 percent of MF Global employees' total contributions. But after Corzine joined in 2010, employee contributions shifted even further to the left: A full 97 percent of MF Global-related campaign contributions benefited Democrats during the 2010 cycle. Democrats had maintained that advantage this year, as well, collecting about 94 percent of MF Global employee donations through June. http://www.moneyteachers.org/moneytruth.html Excerpt: Yesterday, an article appeared on the internet entitled, "The Entire System Has Been Utterly Destroyed By The MF Global Collapse" (Source) Apparently it was distributed as well over Mitt Romney's "Clear Channel Communications", via the likes of Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck. The truth of the matter is that Mitt Romney played a far greater role, through his Hedge Funds at Bain Capital, in the economic collapse, than MF Global. But I digress. (Source) Excerpt: I have learned over the last week that MF Global is almost certainly the mere tip of the iceberg. There is massive industry-wide exposure to European sovereign junk debt. While other firms may not be as heavily leveraged as Corzine had MFG leveraged, and it is now thought that MFG’s leverage may have been in excess of 100:1, they are still suicidally leveraged and will likely stand massive, unmeetable collateral calls in the coming days and weeks as Europe inevitably collapses. I now suspect that the reason the Chicago Mercantile Exchange did not immediately step in to backstop the MFG implosion was because they knew and know that if they backstopped MFG, they would then be expected to backstop all of the other firms in the system when the failures began to cascade – and there simply isn’t that much money in the entire system. In short, the problem is a SYSTEMIC problem, not merely isolated to one firm. http://wallstcheatsheet.com/top-news/wall-street-watch-merkel-and-sarkozy-to-meet-euro-zone-pmi-contracts.html/ Excerpt: Regulators have discovered MF Global (NYSE:MF) pooled customer securities and futures account monies and then transferred it outside the country to at least one party, according to Reuters. The combining and transferring of money has been difficult to unravel as investigators initially thought only futures accounts had been involved. In addition, they have also learned that MF utilized customer funds for “several days if not weeks” opposed to only a few days prior to the firm’s implosion. http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/breaking/chi-cme-group-says-mf-global-broke-rules-with-customer-funds-20111208,0,7804551.story Excerpt: A top executive of Chicago-based futures exchange operator CME Group said MF Global misused hundreds of millions of dollars of customer funds by moving the money to its own accounts, the strongest accusation yet against the bankrupt futures brokerage. "Transfers of customer funds for the benefit of the firm constitute serious violations of our rules and of the Commodity Exchange Act," CME Executive Chairman Terrence Duffy said in prepared remarks. against corporate personhood » 11/05/2011 |
It took me quite a bit of time and quite a bit of study until I really wrapped my head around the idea of inflation. When you grow up not knowing the difference, and knowing that your country’s currency has been in use for almost as long as it has been alive, it comes as quite a shock to find that the paper in your pocket is not actually money.
It can take quite a bit to actually know why people hold onto physical assets from the earth like gold, silver, gems, etc for something other than decoration. Why pay for real gold when you can buy fake gold that looks exactly like it? If you have never really known the difference about money, then it might as well take a college level course to train your brain to think the right way about it.
Ultimately, if people still do not know how money really works, the MF global collapse won’t make any sense, inflation won’t make any sense, and physical metal will not make any sense, and therefore, the purchasing physical metal still won’t make any sense. People can even be told time after time that this or that is good, but until the gears of their own mind start working, until they become motivated by interest or fear, they’ll just continue to sit on their asses and eat potato chips, paying more and more for them each day.