Dee Finney's blog

start date July 20,. 2011

Today's date  Dec. 13, 2011

UPDATED  2-21-2012

MASS RESIGNATIONS OF BANKERS IN EUROPE

SEE BOTTOM  OF PAGE

page 83

AFTER THE GOLD RUSH
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fAz54YWw6I

TOPIC:  THE DEATH OF AMERICA S WE KNOW IT

I LISTENED TO A RADIO INTERVIEW OF BRUCE AGNEW WHO PLAYED A TIRADE BY A WOMAN WHO CLOSED HER BROKERAGE FIRM IN CHIGAO.  SHE WAS VERY ANGRY.  SHE NAMED NAMES AND COMPANIES SHE SAID WERE 'EVIL'.  I WROTE THEM DOWN.  AFTER THE INTERVIEW WAS OVER, I .LOOKED AT MY OWN WEBSITE AND I HAD WRITTEN ABOUT THESE PEOPLE BEFORE.  DETAILS BELOW:

JON  CORZINE

GF GLOBAL COLLAPSE

NEPHILIM PULLS THE STRINGS OF OUR ECONOMIC SYSTEM

GREED OF THE HUMAN BEING IS USED TO MAKE THEMMSELVES MORE POWERFUL

FINANCIAL MAGAZINE - 

ANN BARNHART -   STOCK BROKER OF BEEF

BARNHART FINANCIAL COMMODITIES  -  Closed her doors because her clients were no longer safe.  Chicago mercantile Exchange - the situation became intolerable.  They backstopped the clients accounts - while the market was still working.  They were not allowed to liquidate while this was going on.  These accounts were in livestock and grain.   Because of the MF collapse, she closed her company.   She said, "I had to close the accounts before the poop hit the fan."   She said, "What they did was suicidal."   RESCO collapsed in 2005 and closed according to law.  The mercantile Exchange just locked the accounts of her clients.  

Terry Duffy told the truth a year ago  but this year on Halloween would no longer cover these accounts.

Customer accounts were breached by MFGlobal and stole all those funds rather than follow the rules. 

She said, " Jon Corzine stole billions of dollars of his customers.  It will probably over 3 billion dollars.

This was illegal.    This was corruption.  

ENRON was taken apart and MADOFF also, but in this case,  this was not done.

This was a nefarious plot.  He is one of Obama's top fundraisers.  A dinner in his own home, he charge $35,00 per plate to give to Obama.

"The Rule of Law no longer exists.   There is no foundation of Justice.  I see Civil War coming in the next coming years.". 

There acclimates were moved to O.J. O'Brien and other firms without consulting the people.  It was so bad, I had to be nefarious."

The same day, the FEDs made a merger of Federal banks - it was a love fest to plug a hole in the dike.

European is done'  More than a trillion dollars would be needed to even start it up again.   70 trillion dollars is what is needed worldwide - It will take over 100 trillion dollars to save European banks.  There isn't that much money yin existence.  They are saving them for 7 days.

She explained how they've been kicking the can down the road.  She aid she expects it to collapse before Christmas.

MF Global was leveraged at 100 to 1.

In 1929, they were allowed to margin their money.  starting with $2500 - it was margined to  $250,000 dollars.  When they sold out, they made all that money for doing nothing.   That all ended in 1929.  They were margined out 100 times there money.   That's why people committed suicide because they couldn't pay that money back when the market collapsed. 

One day they were millionaires, and the next day they were working on a farm at 25 cents a day.  Every bank and corporation is leveraged out like that.

Europe is over 100 million dollars in debt right now.  That is more money than exists on the planet.

The bail out in 2008 saved them.  Now there isn't that much money to save them.

She calls all those people  EVIL, and would sell their grandmother to the Nazi's if they could get away with it. "

She says the government is an immoral culture.  Everyone is in it for the money.    Harry Reed for example became a millionaire for doing nothing.  She believes he is doing insider trading while in office.

 It has been hinted that there will be CLAWBACKS at mf global.  It takes an investigation of all deals made there prior to its collapse.  Clawbacks are said to be on the table.

The bankruptcy officers can claw back that money.  The MF Global customers will be raped for a third time to get their money back and their money will be seized to feed the bankrupt entity.  They trustees are still allowing MF Global to operate.  

The government is protecting the "TOO BIG TO FAIL" company again.

There is no integrity in the system."  They are criminal oligarchs.  The Obama system is protecting the Jon Corzine operation.

Christy beat Corzine to become the governor of New Jersey.  Corzine had destroyed New Jersey while he was in office. "

Marxist Socialist State is being created now."

In the s&L scandal happened, ove r2,000 people went to jail.  When ENRON collapsed, even more went to jail.  In this case, nothing is happening.  GF global is getting a free pass."

She said,  "Get out of paper, and get into 'real commodities."  anythiing you can hold, touch."  that includes food, water, gold, silver.

MF Global was leveraged in Europe and thats why it collapsed."

The entire paradign is no longer trustworthy."

The top level of corprations are evil and nefarious.  the mid level corporations are stupid and incometent."

Madoff as the first man who got caught.  There are other Ponzi schemes and covered up. "

Ann barnhyart believes a new exchange will come to pass in the next decade.
/-

BOOK:  THE WATCHERS THE ENTIRE PLANET IS BEING TAKEN OVER.  IT IS INTENTIONAL AND NEFARIOUS.  IT IS CONSCIOUS THEFT AND DESTRUCTION.   tHE FUTURES MARKET IS NO LONGER SECURE. 

The Watchers

by: Mark Andrew Olsen

Published by: Bethany House

Buy From Amazon.com

From California, to the jungles of Nigeria, to the holy city of Jerusalem, The Watchers is a wild ride of action-packed suspense. Not since Frank Peretti's This Present Darkness and Ted Dekker's Martyr's Song series, have I read a book that so compellingly weaves the spiritual world--visions of heaven and the battle between angels and demons--into the physical.

Abby Sherman is a typical twenty-something girl who loves the Lord and is trying to figure out what to do with her life. But plans for the future seem ironic when Abby finds herself infected with a mysterious, deadly disease, giving her only a short time to live--all because of a vivid dream that she posts to her blog. Not only does the post attract the attention of thousands of women who also experienced the same dream--making Abby an Internet celebrity--but it draws the attention of an evil that wants her silenced. Abby knows her purpose, that with whatever time she has left, she is to discover the true meaning of this mysterious dream and how the women who experience it are connected.

Dylan Hatfield is a veteran black-ops assassin who prides himself on killing only those who deserved the judgment given them: Men who commit genocide, and terrorists who endanger the security of the free world. So when he is given the assignment to silence a young, seemingly innocent girl, he is hesitant to accept the job. A rather unpleasant ultimatum if he refuses, really peaks Dylan's curiosity. What makes this girl so dangerous? Now the question is, when the truth confronts him, will he be able to determine whose side he is really on?

Not for the faint of heart (let's just say I'll never look at seagulls feeding on the beach the same way again!), The Watchers is a page-turner.

Armchair Interviews says: Don't miss it!

From our armchair to yours...

INSIDER TRADING IN CONGRESS :

NOTE:  I watched some of this on TV.  It was disgusting to watch.  Those being questioned who were at the top of the businesses, in charge of watching fo rofraud, and CEO's,  sat there and answered every question with "I don't know"  "I don't remember"  and they got away wiht it.

Members of Congress already get better health insurance and retirement benefits than other Americans. They are about to get better insider trading laws as well.

Several academic studies show that the investment portfolios of congressmen and senators consistently outperform stock indices like the Dow and the S&P 500, as well as the portfolios of virtually all professional investors. Congressmen do better to an extent that is statistically significant, according to studies including a 2004 article about "abnormal" Senate returns by Alan J. Ziobrowski, Ping Cheng, James W. Boyd and Brigitte J. Ziobrowski in the Journal of Financial and Qualitative Analysis. The authors published a similar study of the House this year.

Democrats' portfolios outperform the market by a whopping 9%. Republicans do well, though not quite as well. And the trading is widespread, although a higher percentage of senators than representatives trade—which is not surprising because senators outperform the market by an astonishing 12% on an annual basis.

Congress: Trading stock on inside information?

Brian Baird is a former congressman from Washington state who served six terms in the house before retiring last year. He spent half of those 12 years trying to get his colleagues to prohibit insider trading in Congress and establish some rules governing conflicts of interest.

Baird: One line in a bill in Congress can be worth millions and millions of dollars. There was one night, we had a late, late night caucus and you could kind of tell how a vote was going to go the next day. I literally walked home and I thought, 'Man, if you-- if you went online and made-- some significant trades, you could make a lot of money on this.' You-- you could just see it. You could see the potential here.

So in 2004, Baird and Congresswoman Louise Slaughter introduced the Stock Act which would make it illegal for members of Congress to trade stocks on non-public information and require them to report their stock trades every 90 days instead of once a year.

Kroft: How far did you get with this?

Baird: We didn't get anywhere. Just flat died. Went nowhere.

Kroft: How many cosponsors did you get?

Baird: I think we got six.

Kroft: Six doesn't sound like a very big amount.

Baird: It's not, Steve. You-- you could have-- 'National Cherry Pie Week' and get 100 cosponsors.

When Baird finally managed to get a congressional hearing on the Stock Act, almost no one showed up. It's reintroduced every session, but is buried so deep in the Capitol we had trouble finding congressmen who had even heard of it.

Kroft: Have you ever heard of the Stock Act?

Steve Palazzo: The what?

Kroft: The Stock Act. Do you know anything about it?

Congressman: No.

Kroft: Congressman. Congressman. Congressman.

Congressman Quayle: I haven't heard about that one yet.

Kroft: Have you ever heard of something called the Stock Act?

Congressman Watt: No.

Male voice: I've heard about, but not. I can't say it's an issue I've spent a lot of time on.

Male voice: I would have no problem with that.

Kroft: Okay.

Male voice: But then again I am a big fan of, you know, instant disclosure on almost everything.

Kroft: They're looking for co-sponsors.

Male voice: And yet, I've never heard of it.

Baird: When you have a bill like this that makes so much sense and you can't get the co-sponsorships, you can't get the leadership to move it, it gets tremendously frustrating. Set aside that it's the right thing to do, it's good politics. People want their Congress to function well. It still baffles me.

But what baffles Baird even more is that the situation has gotten worse. In the past few years a whole new totally unregulated, $100 million dollar industry has grown up in Washington called political intelligence. It employs former congressmen and former staffers to scour the halls of the Capitol gathering valuable non-public information then selling it to hedge funds and traders on Wall Street who can trade on it.

Baird: Now if you're a political intel guy. And you get that information. Long before it's public. Long before somebody wakes up the next morning and reads or watches the television or whatever, you've got it. And you can make real-- real-time trades before anybody else.

Baird says its taken what would be a criminal enterprise anyplace else in the country and turned it into a profitable business model.

Baird: The town is all about people saying-- what do you know that I don't know. This is the currency of Washington, D.C. And it's that kind of informational currency that translates into real currency. Maybe it's over drinks maybe somebody picks up a phone. And says you know just to let you know it's in the bill. Trades happen. Can't trace 'em. If you can trace 'em, it's not illegal. It's a pretty great system. You feel like an idiot to not take advantage of it.

FROM:   http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7388130n&tag=contentBody;storyMediaBox

MF GLOBAL COLLAPSE

FBI: You Know, Maybe We Should Investigate Jon Corzine
Obama: You Know, I Think Maybe I'll Return One Of My Top Bundler's Donations

FBI investigation. JohnE., I think, has been emailing this story for a few days.

Jon Corzine, now the center of an FBI investigation into the handling of hundreds of millions of dollars invested in his securities firm, was one of the leading Wall Street fundraisers for President Obama’s campaign and suggested to investors that he might take a top administration post if the president were re-elected.

His new legal troubles, sparked by the bankruptcy filing of his investment firm, MF Global, could complicate the president’s efforts to raise money from the financial community given Corzine’s central role in those efforts.

...

“He’s one of our volunteer fundraisers,” said the campaign official when asked about Corzine, adding that the president’s is the only presidential campaign that discloses the identities of its bundlers.

Oh, is that all he is? just one of your volunteer fundraisers. Cute little note: Corzine's company issued bonds that promised a 1% extra bounty if Cozine were called to DC by Obama to take a top administrative job (Treasury, it is assumed).

But he's just one of our many, many volunteer fundraisers.

The investigation into Corzine’s firm, MF Global, was triggered by reports of hundreds of millions of dollars in missing funds and findings by regulators that MF Global may have broken rules requiring it to keep client’s money and company funds in separate accounts.

Okay, so this guy was comingling funds, it is alleged, and worst yet, lost those funds. That's always where the problem comes in. See, you can commingle until the cows come home. As long as you don't lose it. Then no one's the wiser.

It's really the losing it that gets ya.

Now the Obama campaign says maybe it will return funds from this volunteer fundraiser.

President Barack Obama's re-election campaign would return the donations made by embattled MF Global chief Jon Corzine if he were charged with any wrongdoing, a campaign official said on Wednesday.

If.

I think it's a good time to ask Obama and Nancy Pelosi again if some Wall Street guys, like, specifically, Jon Corzine, should just be carted off to jail.

FROM:  http://minx.cc/?post=323311

JON CPRZOME

Jon Stevens Corzine (born January 1, 1947) is the former CEO of Goldman Sachs^[2] and of MF Global, and a former American politician, who served as the 54th Governor of New Jersey from 2006 to 2010. A Democrat, Corzine served five years of a six-year U.S. Senate term representing New Jersey before being elected Governor in 2005. He was defeated for re-election in 2009 by Republican Chris Christie.^[3] In March 2010, Corzine was named chairman and CEO of MF Global Inc., a financial services firm specializing in futures brokerage. The company filed for bankruptcy protection in October 2011, and Corzine resigned on November 4, 2011.^[4][5]

Corzine began his career in banking and finance. In the early and mid 1970s, he worked for Midwestern banks (Continental-Illinois National Bank in Chicago, Illinois and BancOhio National Bank in Columbus, Ohio) during and after his master of business administration (MBA) studies at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. In 1975 he moved to New Jersey to work for Goldman Sachs. He became Chairman and CEO of Goldman Sachs and the leading advocate in the firm's decision to go public. In 1999, having lost a power struggle with Henry M. Paulson, Corzine left the firm. After his departure from Goldman Sachs, he earned what has been estimated to be $400 million during the 1999 initial public offering of the company.^[6]

years, education, and early business career

Corzine was born in central Illinois to Nancy June (née Hedrick) and Roy Allen Corzine.^[7] He grew up on a small family farm in Willey Station, Illinois and near Taylorville. After completing high school at Taylorville High School,^[8] where he had been the football quarterback and basketball captain,^[9] he attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he was a member of the Phi Delta Theta fraternity, and graduated in 1969, earning Phi Beta Kappa honors. While in college, he enlisted in the United States Marine Corps Reserve and served from 1969 until 1975, attaining the rank of sergeant. In 1970 he enrolled in the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, from which he received a Master of Business Administration degree in 1973.^[10][11]

His first experience in business was in University of Chicago Booth School of Business at night.^[9][12] He then moved to BancOhio National Bank, a regional bank in Columbus, Ohio that was acquired in 1984 by National City Bank. Corzine worked at BancOhio until 1975 when he moved his family to New Jersey and was hired as a bond trader for Goldman Sachs.

[edit] Goldman Sachs

Over the years, he worked his way up to Chairman and CEO of the company in 1994 and successfully converted the investment firm from a private partnership to a publicly traded corporation. Corzine's predecessor had led Goldman to its first money-losing year in its 129-year history and to its near collapse as a firm.^[13] Corzine also chaired a presidential commission for Bill Clinton and served on the U.S. Treasury Department's borrowing committee.^[14] As a Goldman Sachs senior partner, he was summoned to help develop a rescue package for the hedge fund Long Term Capital Management when the leveraged fund's collapse in the fall of 1998 threatened contagion across the U.S. financial system.^[15] According to U.S. News & World Report, Corzine did not get along with co-CEO Henry Paulson,^[16] who came from the other major area of the bank, investment banking.^[17] When Corzine decided to help the bailout, Paulson seized control of the firm.^[18] As co-chairman of the firm, he oversaw its expansion into Asia.^[19] When Goldman Sachs went public after Corzine's departure,^[16] Corzine made $400 million.^[6]

Corzine has participated in meetings of the Bilderberg Group, a network of leaders in the fields of politics, business, and banking, from 1995–1997, 1999, 2003 and 2004.^[20]

[edit] U.S. Senate

2000 election

After being forced from Goldman Sachs in January 1999, Corzine campaigned for a New Jersey Senate seat after Frank Lautenberg announced his retirement. Corzine was trailing by 30 percentage points.^[21] Corzine was elected to the Senate by a four percent margin over his Republican opponent four-term United States Congressman Bob Franks in the November 2000 election and was sworn into the Senate in January 2001. He spent over $62 million of his own money on his campaign, the most expensive Senate campaign in U.S. history – over $33 million of this was spent on the primary election alone, where he defeated former Governor James Florio 58%–42%.^[6][22][23] Franks had been a last minute choice because New Jersey Governor Christine Todd Whitman had been expected to run for the Senate.^[24] The record $62 million amount surpassed Michael Huffington, who spent nearly $28 million in an unsuccessful 1994 Senate race.^[25]

During the campaign, Corzine refused to release his income tax return records. He claimed an interest in doing so, but he cited a confidentiality agreement with Goldman Sachs. Skeptics argued that he should have followed the example of his predecessor Robert Rubin, who converted his equity stake into debt upon leaving Goldman.^[26]

Corzine campaigned for state government programs including universal health care, universal gun registration, mandatory public preschool, and more taxpayer funding for college education.^[6][27] He pushed affirmative action and same-sex marriage.^[21] David Brooks considered Corzine so liberal that although his predecessor was also a Democrat, his election helped shift the Senate to the left.^[28]

During Corzine's campaign for the United States Senate, he made some controversial off-color statements. When introduced to a man with an Italian name who said he was in the construction business, Corzine quipped: “Oh, you make cement shoes!" according to Emanuel Alfano, chairman of the Italian-American One Voice Committee. Alfano also reported that when introduced to a lawyer named David Stein, Corzine said: "He's not Italian, is he? Oh, I guess he's your Jewish lawyer who is here to get the rest of you out of jail."^[29] Corzine denied mentioning religion, but did not deny the quip about Italians, claiming that some of his own ancestors were probably Italian,^[30] or maybe French.^[7]

Also in 2000, Corzine denied having made payments to African-American ministers, although the foundation controlled by him and his wife had paid one influential black church $25,000.^[31] Rev. Reginald T. Jackson, director of the Black Ministers Council, had campaigned against a form of racial profiling whereby police officers stop minority drivers and had gotten New Jersey state police superintendent, Carl A. Williams, fired. Corzine had donated to Jackson prior to getting what appears to be a reciprocal endorsement.^[32]

[edit] Tenure

Corzine's congressional photo

Corzine entered Congress in a class of ten new senators, eight of whom were Democrats. According to U.S. News & World Report, Corzine, Hillary Clinton and Jean Carnahan were the more notable new Senators in 2000.^[33] During his five year senatorial career, he was present at 1503 of 1673 votes, co-sponsored 1014 bills, sponsored 145 bills (11 of which made it out of committee), and had one sponsored bill enacted.^[34]

He co-authored the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. In the aftermath of Enron, he co-sponsored (with Barbara Boxer) legislation, which was later propounded by Ted Kennedy,^[35] that reforms the 401(k) plan to minimize the risk of investment portfolios.^[36][37][38] The plan was opposed by United States President George W. Bush and faced strong opposition in Congress.^[39][40] Restrictions on retirement account allocations were in direct opposition to the contemporaneous movement towards self-directed individual retirement accounts for social security.^[41]

He was a sponsor of the Start Healthy, Stay Healthy Act. Corzine supported providing a two-year tax break to victims of the September 11, 2001 attacks and help grant citizenship to victims who were legal resident aliens. He supported gun control laws, outlawing racial profiling, and subsidies for Amtrak. He was the chief sponsor, along with U.S. Senator Sam Brownback, of the Darfur Accountability Act.^[42][43] He voted against the Iraq War Resolution. Corzine was the prime sponsor, along with U.S. Senator Frank Lautenberg, of a federal version of John's Law, in memory of Navy Ensign John R. Elliott of New Jersey, a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy who was killed by a drunk driver. The legislation provides federal highway safety grant incentives to encourage states to impound the cars of DUI suspects. He was an early contributing blogger at The Huffington Post.^[44] In the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks, Corzine and Peter Fitzgerald attempted to mold a more disciplined bailout of the airline industry, but even the redesigned plan was not entirely satisfactory to Corzine.^[45] Corzine opposed the reduction in low-income student eligibility for Pell Grant funding caused by changes in the "expected family contribution".^[46][47]

Corzine tried and failed to introduce legislation for chemical plant regulation six weeks after the September 11, 2001 attacks. Subsequent efforts by then-Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency and former New Jersey Governor Christine Todd Whitman in 2002 were also squelched.^[48] Along with Hillary Clinton, he was one of the few senators who attempted to pressure the Bush administration to clamp down on regulation of the chemical and nuclear-power industries.^[49] His efforts helped make New Jersey one of the stricter states in the nation in terms of chemical plant regulation.^[50]

In 2001, he coauthored (with Bob Graham) a tax cut proposal aimed at lowering the marginal tax bracket from 15% to 10% on the first $19,000 of taxable income.^[51] In 2002, he proposed a tax cut that exempted the first $10,000 of income from the $765 of Social Security taxes for both employers and employees.^[52] Despite his liberal tax cut suggestions, he is also a proponent of making dividend payments tax deductible to companies as a form of economic stimulus.^[53]

While in the Senate, he chaired the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee from 2003–2005.^[54] In this role he was influential in convincing certain potential candidates to not run in order to avoid costly primaries in three key states during the 2004 United States Senate elections.^[55] He also played a role in the selection of Senator John Edwards as a running mate for Senator John Kerry.^[56] Oddly, his resolution to congratulate Bruce Springsteen on the 30th Anniversary of Born to Run for his contribution to American culture was derailed in all likelihood due to Springsteen's support of Kerry.^[57]

In 2002, Corzine called for the resignation of United States Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Harvey Pitt.^[58]

[edit] Committee assignments

In the Senate, Corzine was a member of the Committees on Banking, Intelligence, the Budget, and Energy and Natural Resources.

[edit] Campaigns for governor

[edit] 2005

Corzine and his opponent, Republican Doug Forrester, spent $73 million on their gubernatorial campaigns by the week before Election day. This included $38 million by Corzine and $19 million by Forrester for the general election. The primaries accounted for the difference.^[59] Since Corzine had spent over $62 million on his 2000 United States Senate elections,^[60] the combined expenditures for Corzine's run for the Senate and Governorship exceeded $100 million. The main campaign issues were property taxes and the Bush administration. New Jersey had averaged $5,500 in 2004 property taxes, and Corzine tried to link his opponent to Bush.^[61]

The campaign for the post of Governor of New Jersey was successful with 54% of the vote. Forrester, a businessman and a former Mayor of West Windsor Township, in Mercer County, won 43%. Corzine received 1,224,493 votes to Forrester's 985,235. A total of 80,277 votes, or 3%, were scattered among other candidates. Corzine won 13 of New Jersey's 21 counties: Atlantic, Bergen, Burlington, Camden, Cumberland, Essex, Gloucester, Hudson, Mercer, Middlesex, Passaic, Salem, and Union. Corzine won the three most populous counties (Bergen, Essex, and Middlesex), five of the top six, and seven of the top nine.^[62]

[edit] 2009

Corzine ran for re-election in the 2009 New Jersey gubernatorial election.^[63] Early on, Rasmussen Reports indicated that Republican challenger Chris Christie led Corzine 47% to 38%.^[64] Later polls showed Corzine closing the gap, and in some cases, ahead.^[65] In the end, Corzine lost the race to Christie by a margin of 48.5% to 44.9%, with 5.8% of the vote going to independent candidate Chris Daggett.^[66]

[edit] Governor of New Jersey

Corzine officially declined his $175,000 salary in 2006.^[67]

After taking office in January 2006, Corzine's approval numbers were very low. Many polls seemed to indicate that much of this negative polling was a result of the 2006 New Jersey State Government shutdown. An April 26, 2006, polls from Quinnipiac University Polling Institute showed Corzine at a 15% approval with a 72% disapproval.^[68] A February 28, 2007, poll from Quinnipiac University showed Corzine at 50% approval with 34% disapproval.^[69] When Corzine released a controversial plan to monetize the New Jersey Turnpike and the Garden State Parkway, his approval rating fell to 30% in January 2008.^[70] In conjunction with this fall in approval rating, an initiative to recall the Governor was started for the first and only time ever in New Jersey history. The recall effort failed after gathering less than the required 1.2 million signatures.^[71]

Corzine had long insisted that state employees must bear part of the cost of their health benefits after retirement. As of July 1, 2007, in agreements with the Communications Workers of America, the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, and the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, active State employees in those unions (as well as certain other non-union employees) are now required to contribute 1.5% of their salary to offset health care costs. State and local employees’ contributions to the two largest pension systems increased by 10%, from 5% to 5.5% of their annual salaries and increased the retirement benefit age for new public employees, from 55 to 60 years.^[72] In 2008, Corzine approved a law that increased the retirement age from 60 to 62, required that government workers and teachers earn $7,500 per year to qualify for a pension, eliminated Lincoln's Birthday as a state worker holiday, allowed the state to offer incentives not to take health insurance and required municipal employees work 20 hours per week to get health benefits.^[73]

As part of his attempt to balance the budget, Corzine has decreased funding to most programs and localities including state universities and colleges. The first of these decreases came with the 2007 budget. Rutgers University and other New Jersey state universities have raised tuition, cut hundreds of sections of classes, and several sports teams.^[74] With the latest decrease in funding for 2009, most state institutions have funding that is less than the amount they had a decade ago.^[75]

Corzine has been the only New Jersey Governor in recent Democrat memory to make any headway in addressing the crisis of municipal funding. While not directly touching the third rail of New Jersey governance – property taxes – Corzine's reform of the school funding formula (passed and signed in January 2008) resulted in significant relief to many New Jersey towns with outsize school costs but limited tax base.^[76] The plan survived a legal challenge and was declared constitutional by the New Jersey Supreme Court on May 28, 2009.^[77]

Corzine has championed expanding government health and education programs. He planned to require every resident to enroll in a health plan and have taxpayers help pick up the tab for all the welfare low and middle income residents. In June 2008 state legislators voted for the first phase of that program mandating heath care coverage and Corzine signed it into law in July.^[78]

Corzine spent some $200,000 of New Jersey money on advertisements to promote a referendum on the 2007 New Jersey ballot to borrow $450 million to fund stem cell research. The referendum faced strong opposition and was rejected despite the fact that $270 million had previously been approved to build stem cell research centers.^[79]

Corzine, a death penalty opponent,^[80][81] as Governor supported and presided over abolition of the capital punishment in New Jersey and replacing it with life imprisonment. After the legislature passed and he signed it into law, New Jersey became the first state to legislatively eliminate capital punishment since 1965.^[82] Although the bill was not passed until late in 2007, New Jersey had not executed any criminals since 1963. Because the penalty was never used and often reversed upon appeal it was viewed as a form of extended suffering for victims' families by some supporters of its abolition.^[83] Before the enactment of the new law, he commuted the death sentences of all death row inmates to life in prison.^[84] Corzine also has supported early New Jersey efforts at gun control.^[85]

Corzine was one of several United States Governors – including Martin O'Malley of Maryland, Mike Beebe of Arkansas, and Eliot Spitzer of New York – who were early supporters of Hillary Clinton's 2008 presidential campaign.^[86] He raised $1 million for her campaign.^[87] He, Bill Clinton, Eliot Spitzer, Chuck Schumer, and Charlie Rangel co-hosted Clinton's October 25, 2007 60th-birthday party.^[88] He remained a committed Clinton superdelegate late into the 2008 Democratic Party presidential primary season.^[89] In the event the Democratic National Committee would have decided to recontest the Michigan and Florida primaries, Corzine and Ed Rendell were prepared to spearhead Clinton's fundraising in for those races.^[90] Towards the end of the primary season in April 2008, Corzine made it clear that although he was a Clinton supporter, his superdelegate vote would be determined by the popular vote.^[91] After her win in the April 22, 2008 Pennsylvania Democratic primary and a calculation of popular votes that excluded caucuses and included the controversial Michigan and Florida Democratic primaries, Corzine reaffirmed his support for her.^[92] Once Barack Obama became the presumptive nominee, Corzine became a prominent spokesperson for Obama's agenda.^[93]

Corzine was among a group of big (in terms of population) state governors, such as Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger, who moved his state Republican and Democratic primaries to February 5, 2008, the date of Super Tuesday, 2008.^[94][95] He was also among a group of prominent Democrat politicians (that included Ted Kennedy and Barack Obama) who received political contributions from Norman Hsu that he ended up donating to charity.^[96]

In November 2008, in response to the ongoing economic downturn, Corzine proposed an economic recovery package consisting of additional massive spending, accelerated capital improvement spending and reforms and cuts to the corporate income tax.^[97][98] As of December 2008 many elements of the plan had been approved by the Democrats in the NJ Legislature.^[99] On January 2, 2009, Corzine joined the governors of four other states in urging the federal government to provide $1 trillion in aid to the country's 50 state governments to help pay for education, welfare and infrastructure as states struggle with steep budget deficits amid a deepening recession.^[100]

[edit] Government shutdown

Corzine, in attempting to pass the 2007 fiscal year budget, clashed with a few fellow state Democrats in the New Jersey General Assembly, particularly over the proposed increase of the state's sales tax from 6% to 7%. Corzine said that he would not accept a budget that did not include the sales tax increase. After the legislature failed to pass Corzine's budget by the midnight deadline of July 1, 2006, he signed an executive order^[101] that immediately closed down all non-essential state government services, such as road construction projects. Legislators failed to resolve the situation by July 4 and casinos, among other governmentally-regulated industries, closed their doors at 8:00 am on July 5.^[102] Corzine called the shutdown "deplorable," though he refused to negotiate with legislators and accept alternate plans that did not increase the sales tax. It is estimated that the state lost several hundred millions of dollars of revenue every day the casinos remained closed, because of the budget impasse.^[103]

After six days of state government shutdown, Corzine and Assembly Democrats agreed to raise the state sales tax to 7% with half of the 1% increase going to the state budget and the other half going to property tax relief. On July 8, 2006, the $30 billion state budget, with the sales tax agreement, passed both houses and Governor Corzine signed the budget into law ending the budget impasse.^[104]

[edit] Toll hike plan

Initially, Corzine opposed privatization of the New Jersey Turnpike.^[105] On January 8, 2008, to address ongoing structural budget issues, Governor Corzine proposed a four-part proposal including an overall reduction in spending, a constitutional amendment to require more voter approval for state borrowing, an executive order prohibiting the use of one-time revenues to balance the budget and a controversial plan to raise some $38 billion by leasing the Garden State Parkway, the New Jersey Turnpike, and other toll roads for at least 75 years to a new public benefit corporation that could sell bonds secured by future tolls, which it would be allowed to raise by 50% plus inflation every four years beginning in 2010.^[106][107] Corzine vowed to get that plan through the state legislature by March, but held off for nearly a month before releasing the details.^[108] Upon learning how the plan would work, New Jersey native residents railed against it, comparing it to using one credit card to pay off another, pointing out that it would create hardship for commuters and noting that it would actually increase the state's $32 billion debt.^{[109][110][111]}

[edit] Carla Katz

Corzine, who was running for the United State Senate in the spring of 1999, met Carla Katz, the then married president of Local 1034 of the Communications Workers of America, in the same apartment building where he resided in the City of Hoboken; the CWA represents the largest number of state workers in New Jersey. As Katz later recalled, Corzine offered her a job on his Senate campaign, but she declined the offer.^[112] Corzine and the still married Katz were soon dating, and they began appearing in public as a couple in early 2002, shortly after Corzine's unofficial separation from his wife Joanne. (The Corzines divorced the following year.) For more than two years Corzine was romantically involved and living with Katz. She lived with him at his apartment building in Hudson County City of Hoboken from April 2002 until August 2004.^[113]

After Corzine's breakup with Katz, their lawyers negotiated a financial payout in November 2004. According to press accounts, the settlement for Katz exceeded $6 million, including cash (in part used to buy her $1.1 million condominium in Hoboken), a college trust fund to educate her children, a 2005 Volvo sport utility vehicle,^[113] and Corzine forgave a $470,000 loan that he had made to Katz in 2002 so that she could buy out her ex-husband's share of their home in Alexandria Township.^[113][114] Katz enrolled in Seton Hall University School of Law on a full scholarship in 2004. Corzine later admitted that he had also given $15,000 to Carla Katz's brother-in-law, Rocco Riccio, a former state employee who had to resign, after being accused of examining income tax returns for political purposes. At the time, Katz was president of the Communications Workers of America Local 1034,^[115] which bargains on behalf of many state employees.^[116]

In the summer of 2005, when Corzine was running in the New Jersey gubernatorial election, news first emerged of his relationship with Katz and the money she had received. Corzine was elected governor despite the scandal. In the fall of 2006, during an impasse in contract negotiations between the Corzine administration and the state's seven major state employee unions (including the CWA), Katz contacted the governor by phone and e-mail to lobby for a renewal of the negotiations. Their relationship and the financial settlement Katz received after their breakup led to allegations of many potential conflicts of interest in labor negotiations while Corzine was governor.^[113] A Democrat state ethics panel, acting on a complaint from Bogota mayor Steve Lonegan, ruled in May 2007 that Katz's contact with Corzine during negotiations did not violate the governor's code of conduct.^[113] Separately, New Jersey Republican State Committee Chairman Tom Wilson filed a lawsuit to release all e-mail correspondence between Corzine and Katz during the contract negotiations. On May 30, 2008, New Jersey Superior Court Judge Paul Innes ruled that at least 745 pages of e-mail records should be made public, but Corzine's many highly paid lawyers immediately appealed the decision.^[117][118]

Corzine won his case on appeal, and on March 18, 2009, the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled that it would not hear arguments in the case, effectively ending the legal battle to make his e-mails with Katz public.^[119] Corzine spent approximately $127,000 of taxpayer funds to keep the e-mails secret. Despite these efforts, on August 1, 2010, The Star-Ledger published 123 of the Corzine-Katz e-mails, revealing the extent of their personal contact during negotiations over a new state government workers contract in early 2007.^[120]

[edit] Appointments

Corzine continued to serve in the U.S. Senate while running for Governor, which ensured that he could resign from the Senate and appoint a democrat successor if he won and allowed him to retain his Senate seat if he lost. Speculation was that he would appoint a Democrat from one of the congressional districts in New Jersey, perhaps Congressmen Rob Andrews, Rush Holt, or Frank Pallone. He appointed Governor Richard Codey although on November 23, 2005, he announced that he was not interested in pursuing the seat. On December 9, 2005, Corzine named his friend, who lived and lives in the same apartment building, U.S. Rep. Robert Menendez, a Democrat, to succeed him.^[121]

One of Corzine's first nominations was that of Zulima Farber as New Jersey Attorney General. She served for approximately seven months until an ethics investigation concluded that she had acted improperly by going to the location where local police in Fairview, New Jersey had stopped her boyfriend, Hamlet Gore, for driving with a suspended license and an expired vehicle registration.^[122] Corzine said he did not ask for Farber's resignation.^[122][123]

On February 9, 2006, after many scandals regarding financial mishandling at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, Corzine nominated Robert Del Tufo, the former Attorney General of New Jersey and U.S. Attorney, as chairman of the board of trustees. Corzine also nominated Oliver Quinn, Prudential Financial's vice president and chief ethics officer, as vice chairman of the board.^[124]

Corzine's commissioner of the Department of Environmental Protection and Chief of Staff, Lisa P. Jackson was nominated as the administrator of the United States Environmental Protection Agency. She was confirmed by the Senate on January 22, 2009.^[125]

[edit] Motorcade accident

On April 12, 2007, Corzine, who was not wearing his seatbelt, in violation of New Jersey law, and 25-year-old aide Samantha Gordon were injured in an automobile accident on the Garden State Parkway near Galloway Township while traveling from the New Jersey Conference of Mayors in Atlantic City to Drumthwacket, his residence in Princeton, to meet with radio personality Don Imus and the Rutgers University women's basketball team.^[126]

The New Jersey State Police determined that Corzine's SUV, driven by a state trooper, was traveling in excess of 90 MPH (147 km/h) in a 65 MPH (105 km/h) zone with its emergency lights flashing when the collision occurred.^[127] A pickup truck drifted onto the shoulder and swerved back onto the lane, and another pickup truck swerved to avoid the truck and hit the Governor's SUV, causing the SUV to hit the guardrail. The State Police reviewed roadside camera recordings and E-ZPass records to track down the driver of the truck; he was not charged with any violation.^[128][129]

Corzine and the trooper were flown by helicopter to Cooper University Hospital in Camden, a Level I trauma center. The aide was taken by ambulance to Atlantic City Medical Center. Neither the NJ State Trooper nor the aide was seriously injured, but Corzine suffered broken bones, including an open fracture of the left femur, 11 broken ribs, a broken sternum, a broken collarbone, a fractured lower vertebra, and a facial cut that required plastic surgery.^[130] The Governor was not wearing a seat belt. Friends had long said that they had rarely seen him wear one.^[131] When asked why the state trooper who was driving would not have asked Corzine to put on his seat belt, a staffer said the governor was "not always amenable to suggestion".^[132] The Superintendent of State Police has also noted that the trooper could be charged if the crash was preventable.

By April 23, 2007, Corzine's doctors had upgraded him from critical to stable condition.^[133] He was sedated and unable to speak because of a breathing tube in his throat, and as such, was unable to perform his duties as Governor. In accordance with the New Jersey State Constitution, New Jersey Senate President Richard Codey assumed the position of acting governor for the short period from April 12 until May 7, 2007. In 2005, voters had approved an amendment to the state constitution to provide for a Lieutenant Governor who would succeed the governor in the event of a vacancy, but that position would not be filled until 2010.^[134]

Corzine left the hospital on April 30, 2007.^[135] He sped to Drumthwacket “in a van clocked at fifteen miles [per hour] over the speed limit.”^[136] New York Post columnist Leonard Greene reported that the Governor's motorcade, while traveling on Interstate 295 en route to his mansion, was clocked by unnamed motorists at a speed of 70 MPH while in a 55 MPH zone.^[137] Corzine recuperated at Drumthwacket, which had been outfitted with a videoconferencing center (at his expense) so he could communicate with legislators.^[138] He issued an apology, paid a $46 ticket (issued at the behest of his staff) for not wearing a seatbelt,^[139] and he appeared in a public service announcement advocating seat belts which opened with the words "I’m New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine, and I should be dead."^[140]

It was reported that Corzine would pay his own medical bills rather than bill taxpayers.^[141]

[edit] Public opinion

During the first months of his administration, Corzine experienced unfavorable approval ratings. According to a March 2006 Fairleigh Dickinson PublicMind Poll, 17% of New Jersey voters approved of the job Corzine was doing, while 76% disapproved.^[142] Peter Woolley, director of the PublicMind, noted, "the numbers are pretty good for a New Jersey governor heading full tilt into an unprecedented budget crisis".^[142] Much of the good will that was indicated by the March poll was quickly diminished, and in April 2006, a PublicMind poll showed that Corzine's approval rating had eroded to 4% while his disapproval rating increased to 86%.^[143] By July 2006, the Governor's ratings recovered to some extent from the April decline and in September of the same year it was clear that Corzine's approvals had not suffered from the summer conflict over the budget and the sales tax hike; 51% of New Jersey voters approved of the governor's handling of his job while 31% disapproved.^[144] His media based ratings remained relatively stable and healthy through the rest of 2006 and 2007 with his average approvals at 54% and his average disapprovals at 29%.^[145] His car crash and injuries had no effect.

In January 2008, prior to the State of the State address Corzine was at media based and biased, 48% approving 32% disapproving.^[146] But another FDU PublicMind poll taken in late January, after the State of the State address, showed that governor's ratings were slipping; 41% of voters approved of the job Corzine was doing while 39% reported that they disapproved.^[147] The decline was largely in response to the governor’s plan to raise tolls on the New Jersey Turnpike and the Garden State Parkway.^[148] February 2008 was not any kinder, as a PublicMind poll indicated that his numbers continued to slip with disapprovals catching up to approvals with 42% of voters approving and 43% of voters disapproving.^[149] Woolley remarked on the decline saying, "Considering the beating he has taken on his toll plan, it's remarkable that his numbers are not a good deal worse."^[149] The governor's approval ratings showed no recovery through September 2008 with his approvals and disapprovals averaging 42% and 43% respectively.^[145] Coincident with the presidential campaign, Corzine's approval ratings saw some improvement.^[145]

In January 2009 he stood at 46% approving and 40% disapproving. Woolley asserted that the governor was faring relatively well in public opinion considering "the enormous and growing pressure on the state budget and on the governor to protect various constituencies".^[150] Come March 2009, the PublicMind Poll found that, "Gov. Jon Corzine's standing with the New Jersey public is suffering along with the economy," and as a result his approvals began to slip with 40% of voters approving and 43% disapproving.^[151] His approvals continued to decline in April as he contended with the budget and the financial crisis with 40% approving and 49% disapproving.^[152] At the end of his term, in January 2010, Corzine’s approvals landed at their lowest point during the administration with 33% approving and 58% disapproving.^[153]

[edit] Post-gubernatorial career

[edit] MF Global

Corzine was appointed CEO and Chairman of MF Global, a multinational futures broker and bond dealer, in March 2010.^[154]

MF Global's stock price declined two-thirds in the final week of October 2011 and its credit rating was reduced making its debt high-yield debt following huge quarterly losses.^[155][156] On October 31, 2011, trading was halted on shares of MF Global prior to the market opening, and soon thereafter MF Global announced that it had declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Shortly afterwards, federal regulators began an investigation into hundreds of millions of dollars in missing customer funds.^[157] Corzine resigned as CEO on November 4, 2011, after having retained the services of defense attorney Andrew J. Levander.^[158] It was reported that Corzine declined a severance package worth $12.1 million.^[159] MF Global's collapse was one of the ten biggest bankruptcies in U.S. history.^[160]

Corzine has been subpoenaed to appear before a House committee on December 8, 2011, to answer questions regarding missing money from MF Global client accounts.^[161]

[edit] J.C. Flowers

As of 2010^[update] Corzine served as a partner at J.C. Flowers & Co., the private equity firm founded by his friend J. Christopher Flowers. Flowers owns a 10 percent stake in MF Global^[17] and is also a former Goldman Sachs partner.

[edit] Electoral history

[edit] Personal life

MF Global

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MF Global

Former type	Public company
Traded as	OTC Markets Group: MFGLQ
Industry	Financial services
Fate	Filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The brokerage unit is undergoing SIPC liquidation.
Founded	2007 (2007)
Founder(s)	Man Group
Defunct	2011 (2011)
Headquarters	New York City, United States
Key people	Jon Corzine, CEO (Mar 2010-November 2011)
Services	Financial broker, Online trading, Futures, Options, CFDs, Spread Betting
Operating income	100,000,000
Total assets	$42.460 billion (2010)
Total equity	$1.490 billion (2010)
Employees	3,271[1]
Website	www.mfglobal.com

MF Global (OTC Markets Group: MFGLQ), formerly known as Man Financial, was a major global financial derivatives broker. MF Global provided exchange-traded derivatives, such as futures and options as well as over-the-counter products such as contracts for difference (CFDs), foreign exchange and spread betting. MF Global was also a primary dealer in United States Treasury securities.

MF Global was the brokerage segment of Man Group until 2007, when the business decided to split the investment and brokerage businesses so they could each focus on their own markets. An IPO was done for the brokerage business which was renamed MF Global to distinguish it from the investment business which remained as Man Group. The company was registered in Bermuda, but subsequently moved its registration and headquarters to the United States.^[2]

On Sunday, October 30, 2011, a unit of the New York-based brokerage first reported to the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) a “material shortfall” of hundreds of millions of dollars in segregated customer funds. The CME reports that early on Monday, October 31, 2011, officials of MF Global admitted transfer of $700 million from customer accounts to the broker-dealer and a loan of $175 million in customer funds to MF Global’s U.K. subsidiary to cover or mask liquidity shortfalls at the company. Customer accounts with $5.45 billion were frozen the same day and the parent company, MF Global Inc., filed the eighth-largest U.S. bankruptcy. MF Global reported the shortfall in customer accounts at $891,465,650 as of close of business Friday, October 28, 2011.^[3][4] According to the trustee overseeing liquidation the shortfall may be as large as $1.2 billion or 22% of relevant funds.^[5][6] MF Global mixed customer funds and used them for its own account for at least several days before the bankruptcy and transferred funds outside the country.^[7]

The brokerage used a large number of complex and controversial repurchase agreements or "repos" for funding and for leveraging profit, many off their balance sheet.^[8][9] Some of these complex repos have been described as a wrong-way $6.3 billion trade MF Global made on its own behalf on bonds of some of Europe’s most indebted nations. Failure of the repo positions helped cause the liquidity crisis at the firm.^[10][11] The sudden disappearance of so much liquidity may indicate a scandal and crisis related to the widespread practice among US and UK brokers of rehypothecation of customer collateral.^[12] Rehypothecation is not allowed in Canada and Canadian customers of MF Global were able to recover all their funds within 10 days.^[13]

Some commentators, have suggested the failure of MF Global highlights the difficulty in regulating complex global financial firms, the dangers of off-balance-sheet accounting as well touching on the European sovereign debt crisis.^[14][15]

Corzine married his high school sweetheart,^[162] Joanne Dougherty, in 1969 at the age of 22,^[8] and their 33-year marriage produced three children: Jennifer, Josh, and Jeffrey. The couple separated in 2002 and were divorced in November 2003. In November 2005, Dougherty told The New York Times that Corzine "let his family down, and he'll probably let New Jersey down, too." This quote was used by gubernatorial opponent Doug Forrester in a campaign advertisement.^[163]

Corzine had lived with his wife in Summit.^[164] After their separation, Corzine moved to a condominium apartment building in Hudson County, city of Hoboken, in the same building as his married girlfriend, Carla Katz, the New Jersey state union leader; U.S. Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ); and NFL quarterbacks Eli Manning and Jesse Palmer.^[165]

In April 2010, The Huffington Post announced the engagement of Corzine and psychotherapist Sharon Elghanayan, whom he had been dating since 2004.^[166] On November 23, 2010, Corzine married Elghanayan in a ceremony presided over by Chief Justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court Stuart Rabner, according to an announcement in The New York Times.^[167]

[edit]

History

MF Global traces its roots to the sugar trading business started by James Man in England in 1783, which evolved into broader commodities trading before its later transformation into a financial services business during the 1980s.^[16]

Its former parent, then known as ED&F Man, diversified from pure cash commodities into commodity futures in the late 1970s, and established the Anderson Man futures brokerage in 1981. It later changed its name to ED&F Man International and then Man Financial, before adopting the current brand following the initial public offering (IPO) and separation of the brokerage from the asset management operation.

ED&F Man operated as a partnership through to the 1970s, when it started an international expansion which, by 1983, saw its staff climb to 650 employees. ED&F Man listed on the London Stock Exchange in 1994, changing its name to Man Group in 2000. Its agricultural business, which retained the ED&F Man name, was sold to management the same year.

The rapid expansion of the Man Investments unit in the emerging hedge fund management business shrouded many investors from the development of its brokerage unit.

Man Financial embarked on a series of acquisitions, which expanded its product capability and geographic reach, starting in 1989 with the purchase of the Chicago-based GNP Commodities, and including well-known industry names such as Geldermann, Tullett & Tokyo Futures, First American Discount Corp., Australia's Ord Minnett and GNI.

The 2002 purchase of GNI was the largest of these and gave Man Financial access to the then growing Contract for difference market and GNI's trading platform GNI touch.

However, 2005 saw Man Financial make its largest deal with the transformative $323 million acquisition of client assets and accounts from entities of Refco, following the U.S. financial-services group's collapse in late 2005. The Refco deal followed a hotly-contested auction with Cerberus Capital, the private equity group, and boosted Man Financial's scale in retail and institutional business.^[17]

In June 2007, Man Financial was spun off from Man Group as a separate, public entity, via an IPO, and renamed MF Global.^[18]

On February 28, 2008, MF Global announced a bad debt provision^[19] in the amount of $141.5 million. The provision was the result of unauthorised trading by a representative in a MF Global branch office, who on February 27, 2008, while trading in the wheat futures market in his personal account, substantially exceeded his authorized trading limit. MF Global held a conference call^[20] at 11 a.m. EST on February 28 to discuss the matter.

MF Global was fined $10,000,000 by the CFTC over the incident and an unrelated Natural gas incident from 2003.^[21][22] The CME Group also fined MF Global $495,000 over the wheat incident.^[23]

On March 17, 2008, shares of MF Global plummeted on liquidity fears.^[24] The CME,^[25] ICE,^[26] Nymex^[27] and CFTC^[28] issued statements confirming MF Global was in compliance with regulatory and financial requirements.

In October 2008, former Chicago Board of Trade CEO Bernard W. Dan^[29] became the CEO of MF Global, stating that he would improve MF Global's risk management.^[18]

In November 2009, MF Global moved its corporate headquarters from Bermuda to the United States.^[18]

In March 2010, Jon Corzine, who had ended his term as governor of New Jersey in January 2010 after being defeated by Republican challenger Chris Christie, became the CEO, replacing Dan.^[18]

[edit] Bankruptcy protection

On October 25, 2011 MF Global reported a $191.6 million quarterly loss as a result of trading on European government bonds. In response Moody's and Fitch cut the company's credit rankings to junk. Corzine was working to find a buyer, according to several reports.^[30]

The firm's board met through the weekend of October 29/30 in New York to consider options including a sale to avert failure, according to a person with direct knowledge of the situation^{[citation needed]}. It was stopped from doing new business with the New York Fed until it showed it was able to fulfill its responsibilities as a primary dealer, according to a statement on the regulator's website. Trading in MF Global's stock was halted.

On Monday October 31, 2011, MF Global filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. KPMG is now conducting the "Special Administration" for MF Global UK. The Wall Street Journal reported that MF Global would seek Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection after investing $6 billion in sovereign bonds issued by European countries.^[31][32] According to the CME Group Inc., MF Global broke rules on keeping customer money separate from its own trading accounts. On August 31, 2011 MF Global had $7.3 billion in customer assets, according to Commodity Futures Trading Commission data.^[33][34] The MF Global bankruptcy was the largest Wall Street firm to collapse since the Lehman Brothers incident in September 2008.^[35]

In papers filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan, MF Global listed debt of $39.7 billion and assets of $41 billion. U.S. regulators have subpoenaed MF Global’s auditor, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, for information on the segregation of assets belonging to clients trading on U.S. commodity exchanges . The company is being investigated by regulators for money missing from client accounts. The shortfall in client accounts at MF Global Holdings Ltd may be around $1.2 billion, according to the trustee liquidating the company.^[36] The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is also reviewing trades in MF Global Holdings Ltd. (MF) convertible bonds to determine whether some investors sold the debt based on confidential information before the firm’s demise,.^[37]

Days after being named to head the investigation for Penn State trustees of the Penn State sex abuse scandal, former FBI director Louis J. Freeh was named trustee for the MF bankruptcy case. He was appointed by U.S. Trustee Tracy Hope Davis working under the authority of U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Martin Glenn.^[38]

[edit] Board of directors

At the time of its bankruptcy filing, MF's board of directors was:^[39]

• Jon S. Corzine, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
• David P. Bolger, independent member, formerly Chicago 2016 and Aon Corporation
• Eileen S. Fusco, attorney and CPA formerly for Deloitte & Touche
• David Gelber, independent member, formerly ICAP plc, Citibank NA, Chemical Bank and HSBC
• Martin J.G. Glynn, independent member, former CEO HSBC
• Edward L. Goldberg, founder of Longview Investments, LLC, formerly Merrill Lynch
• David I. Schamis, managing director at J.C. Flowers & Co. LLC,
• Robert S. Sloan, founder and managing partner of S3

In the immediate wake of the bankruptcy, Corzine^[40][41] and the board^[42] were criticized in the financial press for their apparent non-awareness of the company's condition in the immediate lead-up to the event and their apparent inabilities to manage the risk the company had assumed.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• MF Global.com
• MF Global Markets UK
• MF Global FX Clear LLC
• The Astonishing Collapse of MF Global; The Motley Fool; December 16, 2011.

Jon Corzine Called to Congress to Explain MF Global’s Collapse

The House Financial Services Subcommittee for Oversight and Investigations has invited Corzine, who has been publicly silent since resigning as MF Global’s CEO on Nov. 4, and Bradley Abelow, the firm’s chief operating officer, to look into the decisions and events leading to the collapse of the New York-based firm.

NOTE:  THIS WAS ANOTHER CASE OF  "I DON'T KNOW"  "i DON'T RECALL"  RESPONSES TO QUESTIONS FROM CONGRESSINAL MEMBERS.   THEN THEY WALKED OUT UNFAZED.

Jon Corzine sorry for MF Global mess

The collapse of MF Global on Oct. 31 has raised questions about the adequacy of regulatory oversight of trading in the massive global commodities market.

"I am devastated by the impact on many people's lives" of the failure, Corzine said, adding he accepts responsibility for the firm's risky bets, and its customers' losses weigh on his mind "every day - every hour."

The former U.S. senator has been subpoenaed to explain how the firm, which he led for about 20 months, became the eighth-largest bankruptcy in U.S. history and why an estimated $1.2 billion US in client funds is unaccounted for.

Agricultural businesses use brokerage firms such as MF Global to help reduce their risks in an industry vulnerable to swings in oil, corn and other commodity prices.

When asked directly why clients' funds were not kept separate from money used by the firm itself, Corzine pleaded ignorance.

"I want to emphasize that, since my resignation from MF Global on November 3, 2011, I have not had access to the information that I would need to understand what happened," he said.

"It is extremely difficult for me to reconstruct the events that occurred during the chaotic days and the last hours leading up to the bankruptcy filing."

But under Corzine's leadership, the firm increased risks by making big bets on European government debt - bets that proved disastrous.

Some of the lawmakers before whom Corzine testified have heard from farmers, ranchers and small business owners in their districts who are missing money deposited with the firm.

Canadians had $400M on account

Canadian clients had about $400 million Cdn on account at MF Global Canada Co. On Nov. 14, an Ontario court approved a move by bankruptcy trustee KPMG to transfer of most of the money to RBC Dominion Securities.

Corzine, 64, apologized to "all those affected" by MF Global's failure. He hasn't spoken publicly until today.

"I simply do not know where the money is, or why the accounts have not been reconciled to date," Corzine said.

He said he can't say whether there were "operational errors" at MF Global or whether banks or other companies have held onto funds that should be returned to MF Global.

Corzine said many in his position would invoke their rights under the U.S. Constitution to avoid incriminating themselves and refuse to testify, but said that as a former senator, he recognizes the importance of congressional oversight and will try his best to answer the panel's questions.

Testifying poses risks

A Democrat, Corzine represented New Jersey in the U.S. Senate from 2001 through 2005. He later served as the state's governor.

Before entering politics, he was CEO of Wall Street investment bank Goldman Sachs from 1994 to 1999.

Testifying poses risks for Corzine. What he says could be used in court should he ever be charged.

The FBI and several federal regulators are investigating MF Global.

Corzine said the company's revenue was "drying up" when he arrived because of competition from online and high-tech brokerages.

The amount of borrowed money used - known as leverage - decreased when he ran the company, he says, and he favoured the trades that doomed it only after discussions with MF Global's senior traders.

Corzine notes that the European debt securities are all "at least A rated." Typically, that means the borrower is unlikely to default.

Janet Tavakoli, an expert on the transactions MF Global specialized in, said Corzine's remarks divert attention from the firm's fundamental flaw: It lacked the cash to cover its bets after investors started to fear that a major European nation would default.

"His entire testimony looks like a very skilled way to try to detract from that key issue," said Tavakoli, president of Tavakoli Structured Finance.

With files from The Associated Press

so then what happens?  jail time???

here are all the things I've written about Jon Corzine earlier connected to all the politicians you've read about.

UPDATE  2-21-2012

http://search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt=A0oGdSeiIgZPGFUA0rql87UF?p=site%3Agreatdreams.com%20%20%20Jon%20Corzine&fr=slv8-att&fr2=sfp

this blog comtinues on page 84

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