More than $200 million in customer funds appears to be missing from the accounts of U.S. futures broker PFGBest, regulators said on Monday just hours after the firm's founder attempted suicide outside the company's Iowa headquarters.(emphasis mine)
The suicide attempt and missing money renewed anxiety over the stability of the brokerage industry less than a year after the collapse of much larger MF Global. PFGBest told customers their funds had been frozen and clients would be allowed to liquidate open trading positions, but would not be able to withdraw funds or make new trades until further notice.
The National Futures Association (NFA), an industry group that also plays a regulatory role, said it had issued an emergency order to effectively freeze PFGBest's operations after finding that a U.S. bank account the broker said contained $225 million in customer funds actually held only $5 million.
"It appears that PFG does not have sufficient assets to meet its obligations to its customers," the NFA said.
The disclosure came hours after owner Russell Wasendorf Sr., a 40-year veteran of futures markets, was found in his car near the company's new headquarters, having apparently attempted suicide. He is in critical condition at the University of Iowa Hospitals, according to local news reports.
I'm wondering if I'm a bad person for thinking that Wassendorf's attempt to top himself shows a little bit more common decency and remorse than we got from Jon Corzine in the MF Global matter.
I'm beginning to wonder if your money might actually be safer invested in Nigerian 419 scams than it is with financial professionals.
<span>in a San Francisco CFTC case against a small <span>hedge fund</span>, it is repeated by their law school classmates at uc berkeley that a us judge on the case and an attorney representing the hedge fund named paron capital had a homosexual affair in the mid 90's while in law school. the two also worked together for years at the sec and doj before one became a judge and the other went into private practice.</span><span>
ReplyDelete</span><span>the judge and the attorney refused to recuse and the cftc and the nfa never responded to any of the accuses of knowing about the conflicts and covering it up</span>