23 March 2012

Corzine Gave 'Direct Instructions' To Transfer $200 Million From Customers to JPM London


Jamie's crew is probably safe, but it looks like Jon is facing his 'Kenny Boy' Enron moment, although he may find some shelter in the Sargeant Schultz defense. I know nothing. NOTHING.

I guess the fellows who said that they had found nothing incriminating in the emails forget to mention this one.

Edith O'Brien's appearance before the Congress just became potentially more interesting, although she could still plead the Fifth.  I wonder if the email turned up because so did she.

Corzine will almost certainly claim that there was a mix up, and that he merely said to meet the margin call, but did not know it involved customer funds.  He said, she said.   Save the dress.

It also looks like the spin might be that it was a 'mistake' because they were mingling customer funds with 'excess firm funds' in some third account.

And then the Anti-Bernanke of the financial apocalypse vaporized the money and all traces of it. And everyone was happy, except for a few small specs.

No harm, no foul. Just a simple error. Fine and a wristslap and a promise to better when he gets back on his Street feet.

Great job Phil Mattingly of Bloomberg for snagging this Congressional memo and releasing it.  I wonder which staffer slipped it. I'd book on GOP but I never really was a very sophisticated politico.

I still have major doubts for justice being done, but I do wish to see the customers released from their financial hell. Perhaps this will help.

Oh Jonny boy, the pipes, the pipes are calling....

Bloomberg
MF Global’s Corzine Ordered Funds Moved to JPMorgan, Memo Says
By Phil Mattingly and Silla Brush
Mar 23, 2012 4:04 PM ET

Jon S. Corzine, MF Global Holding Ltd. (MFGLQ)’s chief executive officer, gave “direct instructions” to transfer $200 million from a customer fund account to meet an overdraft in one of the brokerage’s JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) accounts in London, according to an e-mail sent by a firm executive.

Edith O’Brien, a treasurer for the firm, said in an e-mail sent the afternoon of Oct. 28, three days before the company collapsed, that the transfer of the funds was “Per JC’s direct instructions,” according to a copy of a memo drafted by congressional investigators and obtained by Bloomberg News.

O’Brien’s internal e-mail came as the New York-based broker found intraday credit lines limited by JPMorgan, the firm’s clearing bank as well as one of its custodian banks for segregated customer funds, according to the memo, which was prepared for a March 28 House Financial Services subcommittee hearing on the firm’s collapse. O’Brien is scheduled to testify after being subpoenaed this week.

“Over the course of that week, MF Global (MFGLQ)’s financial position deteriorated, but the firm represented to its regulators and self-regulatory organizations that its customers’ segregated funds were safe,” said the memo, written by Financial Services Committee staff and sent to lawmakers.

Vinay Mahajan, global treasurer of MF Global Holdings, wrote an e-mail on Oct. 28 that said JPMorgan was “holding up vital business in the U.S. as a result” of the overdrawn account, which had to be “fully funded ASAP,” according to the memo...

Read the rest here.