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Politics : The Obama - Clinton Disaster -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: GROUND ZERO™ who wrote (62032)	12/14/2011 10:33:12 AM
From: Hope Praytochange	1 Recommendation Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 103300

Corzine challenged over missing money Share \| Story Discussion Corzine challenged over missing money BY DANIEL WAGNER AND MARCY GORDON • Associated Press STLtoday.com \| Posted: Wednesday, December 14, 2011 12:00 am \| (4) Comments WASHINGTON • A financial exchange executive said Tuesday that Jon Corzine might have known that MF Global customers' money was transferred earlier than Corzine has admitted. CME Group Inc. Executive Chairman Terrence Duffy told a Senate panel that Corzine knew before Oct. 30 about a transfer of $175 million in the form of a loan to a European affiliate of MF Global. Corzine has testified that he didn't know any customer money was missing until Oct. 30, the day before MF Global became the eighth-largest bankruptcy in U.S. history. About $1.2 billion of customer money was unaccounted for when the company collapsed. According to Duffy, a woman at MF Global told a CME auditor that "Mr. Corzine was aware" of the loan in the week before MF Global's bankruptcy filing. Duffy told the Senate Agriculture Committee that he's referred the matter to the Justice Department and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, MF Global's main regulator. Duffy said he received the information this week from CME Group attorneys who are investigating the matter. MF Global traded on exchanges managed by CME Group, such as Chicago Mercantile Exchange. If Corzine is found to have lied in his testimony before multiple congressional committees, he could be prosecuted. A Corzine representative had no immediate comment on the allegation. Earlier Tuesday, Corzine told senators he never told anyone to "misuse" customer money that vanished when MF Global collapsed this fall. Brokers are required by law to keep customer money separate from company money. Corzine, a former Democratic New Jersey senator and governor, resigned as CEO of the securities firm last month. Bradley Abelow, the firm's president and chief operating officer, and Henri Steenkamp, the chief financial officer, also tried at the hearing to distance themselves from any decision to transfer customers' money. Brokers are required to keep client money separate from company funds. All three witnesses said they don't know where the money is. Yet their phrasing varied in subtle ways that could have legal distinctions. Corzine said he did not direct anyone to "misuse" clients' money. Abelow said he does not recall "any conversation about customer funds being used for anything other than their intended purpose." Steenkamp's stance was more sweeping. He said he did not "authorize, approve or know of any transfers of customer funds" out of their accounts. Depending on the circumstances, transferring money from customers' accounts could violate securities laws and, in some cases, could amount to a crime. Federal authorities have begun criminal investigations. And regulators are looking into whether the firm broke securities rules. Corzine and Steenkamp said that given what's now known, they wouldn't have signed the firm's last quarterly financial statement attesting that its internal financial controls were adequate. Under a 2002 anti-corporate-fraud law that Corzine co-wrote as a U.S. senator, the CEO and chief financial officer of public companies must personally certify the accuracy of their company's financial statements. It can be a violation of the law for executives to sign a false statement. Read more: stltoday.com