http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2011/12/hot-mf-global-employee-links-clinton-to.html
Excerpt:
Clinton is the chairman of the company’s advisory board, reports HE. His duties and compensation have not been released. The other member of the board is former British prime minister Tony Blair.
Two of the three founding partners are very close to the former president and his wife, Secretary of State Hillary R. Clinton. They are Douglas J. Band, who is the former president’s counselor and has served on his personal staff since 1995 and Declan Kelly, who earned the “Hillraiser” status in the secretary’s 2008 run for president for bundling more than $100,000 for the campaign.
Another prominent member of the Clinton political family is Tom Shea. Shea is a senior vice president for Teneo Strategy and served as Corzine’s chief of staff, when Corzine was the governor of New Jersey.
The collapse of MF Global has caused financial pain for many, including customers at the commodities trading, Lind-Walldock. LW is owned by MF and indications are that Corzine directed the use of LW segregated cash to back up losing MF Global trading positions.
Customer accounts at LW have been frozen since the bankruptcy of MF.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Shea
Excerpt:
Thomas Shea is a senior political adviser and the former
Chief of Staff to
New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine. Shea took over the chief of staff position when Corzine took office in January 2006. In June 2007, he was named the #6 most influential political personality in the state of New Jersey.
[1] Shea held the position in Corzine's cabinet until his replacement by
Brad Abelow as of September 1, 2007.[2]
Previously, Shea served as Chief of Staff in Corzine's United States Senate office. In 2004, he was the Florida campaign director for the Democratic national ticket of
John Kerry and
John Edwards. During the Clinton Administration, Shea served on the White House staff, as a spokesman for the U.S. Mission to the
United Nations and the U.S. Embassy in France, and in a senior position in the
United States Department of State.
http://www.businessinsider.com/mf-global-coo-bradley-abelow-just-took-a-96-paycut-2011-11
Excerpt:
Abelow's original base pay was $1.5 million, he is now working for $60,000. That's about slightly less than a home economics teacher in the New York City region makes in a year.
And to add insult to injury -- according to MF Global's most recent proxy statement,
Abelow's original salary would have been $4.5 million total, with bonuses and stock options.
http://mobile.bloomberg.com/news/2011-10-26/goldman-sachs-may-make-windfall-profit-if-it-buys-mf-global-bove-says
Excerpt:
In 2008, MF Global sold $300 million in preferred shares and notes to the public and as much as $300 million in equity- linked securities to buyout firm JC Flowers & Co. to help repay a $1.05 billion bridge loan.
Evercore Partners Inc. (EVR), the investment bank founded by former U.S. Deputy Treasury Secretary
Roger Altman, might also show interest in a deal with MF Global, Bove said. The firm is advising MF Global on the review of its business, said a person with knowledge of the matter today. Evercore may be interested in providing advisory clients with the ability to raise funds through a fixed-income trading platform, Bove said.
Robert Altman on Charlie Rose
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jK69Ivgzzs8&feature=related
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-11-27/mf-global-s-bankruptcy-trustee-set-to-be-ex-fbi-director-freeh.html
Excerpt:
MF Global’s Bankruptcy Trustee Set to Be Ex-FBI Director Freeh
November 27, 2011, 7:06 PM EST
Nov. 26 (Bloomberg) -- Louis J. Freeh, the former Federal Bureau of Investigation director, was appointed Chapter 11 trustee in the MF Global Holdings Ltd. bankruptcy after the company and creditors said one person should take charge of recovering assets.
Such a trustee would coordinate globally with regulators and advocate for a prompt return of creditor funds, according to court filings. A trustee to guide the search for assets would be more cost-effective than the company or its lenders, MF Global and its creditors have said. The appointment was filed yesterday.
Customer accounts of MF Global Inc., the broker-dealer unit of parent MF Global Holdings believed to hold $5.45 billion, were frozen Oct. 31. That day, the New York-based company reported a shortfall in funds required to be segregated under U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission rules. About $1.2 billion in customer funds are believed to be missing, according to James Giddens, the trustee appointed to liquidate the broker-dealer and distribute refunds to its customers.
MF Global Holdings, which was run by former New Jersey Governor and ex-Goldman Sachs Group Inc. co-chairman Jon Corzine, filed for bankruptcy protection to apportion returns to its creditors, including bondholders and lenders.
FBI Director
Freeh served as director of the FBI under U.S. President Bill Clinton from 1993 to 2001. He had previously worked as an FBI agent and later became a federal prosecutor and judge, appointed to the bench in 1991 by President George H. W. Bush.
His appointment as MF Global’s trustee must be approved by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Martin Glenn, who is presiding over the bankruptcy. The request was made in court papers filed in Manhattan.
Excerpt:
MF Global Is Said to Explore Options With Evercore’s Help as Shares Plunge
By Cristina Alesci
October 26, 2011 10:49 AM EDT
MF Global Holdings Ltd. (MF) is exploring strategic options, including a potential sale of the company, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.
Evercore Partners Inc. (EVR) is advising MF Global on the review of its business, said the person, who declined to be identified because the discussions are private.
Diana DeSocio, an MF Global spokeswoman, said the company can’t comment on rumors or speculation. A spokesman for Evercore didn’t immediately return a call seeking comment. The Wall Street Journal reported the news earlier today.
To contact the reporter on this story: Cristina Alesci in New York at
calesci2@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Jennifer Sondag at
jsondag@bloomberg.net
http://www.evercorewealthmanagement.com/publications/perspective-2011-12-01.asp
Excerpt:
December 1, 2011
By Roger Altman
The writer is chairman of Evercore Partners and was US deputy treasury secretary under President Bill Clinton. The perspective piece was published by the Financial Times on December 1, 2011.
Excerpt:
Reuters reported on the egg Blue bankster Jon Corzine threw on the New York Federal Reserve Bank with MF Global's bankruptcy.
MF Global Holdings Ltd, just nine months after ascending to the list of primary dealers who transact business directly with the Fed, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Monday.
The bankruptcy does raise questions, however, about how the Fed picks the primary dealers -- especially since MF Global was one of four firms added to the ranks after new, more stringent requirements were put in effect in 2010.
A spokesman for the New York Fed declined to comment.
Corzine's firm bet on a EU bailout for its significant European government bond holdings. He counted on a bailout, maybe even relied on credit coverage. Nevertheless, a Fed primary dealer went belly up after passing "stringent requirements."
MF Global's demise leaves 21 primary dealers to execute Ben Bernanke's Operation Twist.
Update: ZeroHedge made Corzine out to be Bernie Madoff, one who stole from his firm's customers.
Update 11-6-11: MF Global's clients may be organizing. Also, BlackRock and Evercore found MF Global's commingling of the firm's and client funds, but the Federal Reserve Bank could not.
http://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/Turf-war-brews-prosecutors-reuters_molt-1923370442.html?x=0
Excerpt:
Grant McCool, 0:00, Thursday 8 December 2011
NEW YORK (Frankfurt:
A0DKRK -
news) (Reuters) - A turf war may be brewing between two high-profile U.S. prosecutors over who will take the lead in a criminal probe of collapsed futures brokerage MF Global Holdings Ltd .
U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald in Chicago and Preet Bharara, his counterpart in Manhattan (Xetra:
A0X9G1 -
news) , are examining how hundreds of millions of dollars went missing from the futures brokerage, sources familiar with the matter have told Reuters.
No charges have been brought, and no one at MF Global has been accused of wrongdoing.
Fitzgerald and Bharara are hard-charging prosecutors whose careers briefly overlapped in the criminal division of the Manhattan U.S. Attorney's office a decade ago.
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/dirty_pols_walk_sCBpRsZvM6MeGyAnKtJP9K
Excerpt:
Bharara promised to make pursuit of political corruption a top priority. Thus far, his office has already lost one high-profile political corruption case against Assemblyman William Boyland Jr., because Bharara’s team didn’t present smoking-gun evidence. Now, his team’s been bushwhacked when two key prosecution witnesses in this case recanted their grand-jury testimony of a kickback scheme allegedly orchestrated by Seabrook.
This unending narrative of corruption comes sickeningly full circle when the attorney for a key prosecution witness was once himself a subject of prosecution. Martin, a disgraced former state judge is now representing Jones-Grant, whose claim of dementia undermines a potentially successful prosecution against his former political godfather. And the witness admits under oath that she had regular contact with the defendant as recently as days prior to the start of the trial.
I don’t have inside knowledge here — but like you, I’m left to wonder: Coincidence or sinister connection? Like the public, I ask, “Can’t anybody shoot straight?” It’s no wonder our people are mad.
I am angry because the institutions New Yorkers rely upon — politicians, government agencies, nonprofits — have broken faith with us. We want justice.
We must rid our city and state of the politicians, poverty pimps and misery vampires who setup nonprofit agencies only to loot them for their personal gain. The people in charge of prosecuting these grifters must do a better job of ensuring justice and fair trials that are not upended by a failure to safeguard witnesses.
US Attorney Bharara, New Yorkers need you to be on top of your game.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1553492/Mafia-prosecutor-now-has-Bush-in-his-sights.html
Excerpt:
Mafia prosecutor now has Bush in his sights
By Tim Shipman in Washington
12:01AM BST 03 Jun 2007
George W Bush has seen off Al Gore, John Kerry and Saddam Hussein. But with the varnish fast disappearing from his administration, the president may finally be about to meet the man who could prove his undoing.
Preet Bharara is a 38-year-old Indian-American lawyer, who made his name prosecuting the bosses of the Gambino and Colombo crime families in New York.
http://www.nationalreview.com/nrd/article/?q=MDIzNjJjNjM3NTUyMDlmMzU1ODc0OTBmMDQ4MjRhNDg=
Excerpt:
“One thing you don’t hear much about, at least with respect to President Bush, is that he has been exemplary in not attacking the prosecutor, in not making privilege claims, and in not getting credit for it,” says Sol Wisenberg, a former prosecutor in the Starr office. “There is absolutely no comparison [to 1998], except to say that the Clinton White House was engaged in delaying tactics at every turn, and, from what we can tell, the Bush administration has been entirely the opposite.”
While that is certainly laudable, in some Washington circles there is a nagging question being asked these days: Has the Bush White House actually cooperated
too much with Fitzgerald, so much so that future administrations might be harmed?
http://news.muckety.com/2011/12/08/corzine-apologetic-but-defensive/35481
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-11-27/mf-global-s-bankruptcy-trustee-set-to-be-ex-fbi-director-freeh.html
Excerpt:
http://www.corporationwiki.com/Washington/Bellevue/james-c-pigott/29800058.aspx
http://www.aftermissjulie.com/more-insult-and-injury-attempted-by-jp-morgan-on-mf-global-customers/?gclid=CIHvx5iK9KwCFQVwhwod1AKBTg
Excerpt:
http://dealbreaker.com/2011/10/mf-global-owes-maria-bartiromo-et-al-845000/
Excerpt:
Technically, they owe CNBC the 845 but Corzine is probably more worried about invoking the ire of some anchors more than others, like Jim Cramer, who “is fine” with being an unsecured creditor.
MF Global Filing [Scribd via
Forbes]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Bartiromo
Excerpt:
Maria Bartiromo (born September 11, 1967) is an American television journalist, magazine columnist and author of three books. Bartiromo is a native of New York and attended
New York University. She worked at
CNN for five years before joining
CNBC television. At CNBC, she was the co-host of the
Closing Bell program and the host and managing editor of
The Wall Street Journal Report and is credited for becoming the first reporter to broadcast live from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.
[1] She has appeared on various television shows, been the recipient of various journalism awards including being inducted into the Cable Hall of Fame.
http://www.marketwatch.com/investing/stock/mfglq/insiders?pid=13369072
Excerpt:
Edward L. Goldberg
Mr. Edward L. Goldberg is Independent Director at MF Global Holdings Ltd., Managing Member at Longview Investments LLC, and a Member at Dix Hills Partners LLC. He is on the Board of Directors at MF Global Holdings Ltd.
Mr. Goldberg was previously employed as Vice Chairman by The Depository Trust Co., Executive Vice President-Operations Services Group by Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc., and a Member-Operational Surveillance Committee by New York Stock Exchange, Inc. He also served on the board at Nasdaq International Ltd. and Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Inc.
He received his undergraduate degree from the New York Institute of Finance.
Excerpt:
Last month, Mr. Corzine, who lost his bid for a second term as governor in November, was appointed chief executive of MF Global, an international brokerage firm that specializes in futures, options and derivatives trading.
He was also named a partner at J. C. Flowers & Company, a buyout firm that was founded by a fellow former Goldman executive and owns just under 10 percent of MF Global’s voting shares.
So just how long did it take for Mr. Corzine to hammer our his compensation package?
“It takes seven days to turn a cast-out businessman and exiled politician into a new chief executive” The Observer writes.
Only two days after Mr. Corzine was approached by David Schamis, a managing director at J. C. Flowers & Company, about taking the job at MF Global, the two men hooked up for a meeting, the newspaper reports:
Excerpt:
Board
Accessed January 2011:
[2]James S. Tisch - Chairman of the Board; President and Chief Executive Officer, Loews Corporation
John R. Bolton - Senior Fellow, American Enterprise Institute
Lawrence R. Dickerson - President and Chief Executive Officer
Charles L. Fabrikant - Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer, SEACOR Holdings, Inc.
Paul G. Gaffney II - President, Monmouth University
Edward Grebow - Managing Director, J.C. Flowers & Co. LLC
Herbert C. Hofmann - Senior Vice President, Loews Corporation
Arthur L. Rebell - Retired, former Senior Vice President, Loews Corporation
Raymond S. Troubh - Financial Consultant
http://occupywallst.org/forum/why-does-magic-johnson-get-the-ows-donations/
Excerpt:
Edward Grebow, Amalgamated Bank's President and CEO. "The investments by Yucaipa and WL Ross will enable the Bank to comfortably exceed the increased required capital levels established in our agreements with the New York State Banking Department and the FDIC
In other words, when Pete Dutro deposits your donations at Amalgamated, the bank now has the blessing of the Feds to play with that OWS money, since they only have a small percentage of the money they claim to have (fractional reserve).
http://www.blackagendareport.com/content/7200-deaths-and-environmental-betrayal-small-price-pay-corporate-partnershipExcerpt:
Daley is no stranger to corporate boardrooms. In fact, President Obama selected him because of his close ties to the banking industry and corporate America. From 1989-1990, Daley served as the first Vice Chairman of the Amalgamated Bank of Chicago, and later president and chief operating officer from 1990–1993. He was appointed to the board of Fannie Mae in 1993 by President Bill Clinton, where he served until 1997. In December 2001, following his tenure as U.S. Secretary of Commerce under President Clinton, he was appointed President of SBC Communications to help reform the company's image. In May 2004, Daley assumed the position of Midwest Chairman of JPMorgan Chase, following its acquisition of Bank One Corporation, to oversee its operations from Chicago.
http://blogs.wsj.com/deals/2011/01/06/bill-daleys-banking-track-record/ (I don't like using WSJ stuffs but thought it necessary here) ...cal
Excerpt:
Daley also served as vice chairman of
Evercore Partners, the boutique private equity and financial advisory firm. Evercore, of course, was set up by Roger Altman, who is a candidate for a White House post as head of the National Economic Council.
Before his stint at the Commerce Department during the Clinton administration, Daley was president and chief operating officer of the Amalgamated Bank of Chicago until 1993, and a lawyer at the firm of Daley & George from 1975 to 1985.
http://www.bankofamericafraud.com/Ponzi_scheme_lawsuit/index.html
Excerpt:
New York Times
Bank of America effectively set up a branch in a Long Island office that helpedped Nicholas Cosmo carry out a $380 million
Ponzi scheme, according to a class-action lawsuit filed in federal court.
Daniel Acker/Bloomberg News
A suit against Nicholas Cosmo says he had a bank branch dedicated to his illegal operation.
The lawsuit, filed in Federal District Court in Brooklyn late Thursday, contends that Bank of America “established, equipped and staffed” a branch office in the headquarters of Mr. Cosmo’s firm, Agape Merchant Advance. As a result, the lawsuit contends that the bank knowingly “assisted, facilitated and furthered” Mr. Cosmo’s fraudulent scheme.
“Bank of America was at the epicenter of this scheme,” said the lawsuit, which seeks $400 million in damages from the bank and other defendants. “Without Bank of America’s participation, the scheme would not have succeeded and grown to such an enormous size.”
Mr. Cosmo surrendered to authorities at a Long Island train station in January in connection with a suspected Ponzi scheme involving what Mr. Cosmo called “private bridge loans” that promised investors returns of 48 percent to 80 percent a year. Many of his 1,500 investors were blue-collar workers and civil servants.
Bank of America declined to comment, saying that it had not yet seen the suit.
According to the suit, representatives of Bank of America worked directly out of Mr. Cosmo’s West Hempstead office, which was about 30 miles from the branch where Agape and Mr. Cosmo maintained their bank accounts. In addition, Bank of America provided on-site representatives at Agape with bank equipment and computer systems that allowed direct access to the bank’s accounts and systems, the suit said.
“Essentially, Bank of America established a fully functional bank branch manned by its own representatives within Agape’s offices, which is contrary to normal banking practices,” the lawsuit said. As a result, the bank’s representatives had “actual knowledge” that Mr. Cosmo was “diverting money to his own account” and “engaging in virtually no legitimate business whatsoever.”
In a complaint filed against Mr. Cosmo in January by the Commodities Futures Trading Commission, the government contends that from 2004 to 2008, Mr. Cosmo operated a fraudulent trading scheme in which investors were solicited to provide short-term bridge loans but that the money instead went into commodities trading contracts that lost money.
This is the second time that Mr. Cosmo has been accused of fraud. He had previously served 21 months in federal prison in Allenwood, Pa., for mail fraud. Upon his release in 2000, his broker’s license was revoked. He founded Agape after leaving prison.
The lawsuit also names a number of futures and commodities trading firms that, the lawsuit said, “assisted Cosmo in running an illegal unregistered commodities pool.” The suit says that the trading firms should “never have accepted this business,” which violated “know your customer” duties that are required of these firms.
One of the firms named in the suit was
MF Global. Diana DeSocio, a spokeswoman for MF Global, said that when the firm became aware of Mr. Cosmo’s background last October, it closed Mr. Cosmo’s account and notified regulators.
Ms. DeSocio added that the account that Mr. Cosmo had was an individual account and was not an account set up on behalf of his investors.
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Accuracy_in_Media
Excerpt:
No comments:
Post a Comment