It is a variation of the spin. No the money is not vaporized, but its complicated. There are lots of possibilities just too complicated to explain to the public, and you have to be patient, little customers, while a pile of creditors' lawyers sit on your money until you hopefully go away.
Real journalism and critical news analysis is apparently dead. The mainstream media outlets merely repeat sound bites supplied to them.
But one has to ask themselves, could this situation become more ludicrous? Does anyone actually buy this clumsy handling of serious wrongdoing and gross seizure of customer assets? The professionals and those in the know do not, and it is putting a chill on the markets, and people are afraid to talk about it above a whisper. It's an old story, of droit du seigneur, of the lord of the manor drunk with power doing something unspeakable.
Why are these people so afraid to tell the simple story of what actually happened? Because they are falling all over themselves to avoid talking about 'he who must not be named.'
Still, it is as I forecast the case would progress all the way back in November.
NY Times
After a Delay, MF Global’s Missing Money Is Traced
By BEN PROTESS and AZAM AHMED
January 31, 2012, 9:42 PM
Investigators have determined what happened to nearly all of the customer money that disappeared from MF Global around the time of its bankruptcy last Oct. 31, but have not publicly disclosed their progress, fearing that doing so might cripple efforts to recover the cash and pursue potential wrongdoing, people briefed on the investigation said.
While authorities have traced hundreds of millions of dollars to banks, MF Global’s trading partners and even the firm’s securities customers, investigators remain uncertain about whether they can retrieve the money.
Some recipients were entitled to payouts from MF Global, which could make clawing back the money difficult. For instance, securities customers withdrawing their money as MF Global began to collapse were paid from accounts that belonged to futures clients, according to other people briefed on the matter.
But the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the regulator leading the investigation, will examine whether anyone accepted customer cash without verifying the source of the money, one of the people briefed on the matter said.
This person and others who discussed the case did so on the condition of anonymity because the investigation is not public.
The findings shift the pressing question surrounding the collapse of MF Global from what happened to the money to how to recover it and who is at fault.
Answers will not come easy. A significant impediment has been clashes among the parties trying to resolve the MF Global mess: three federal agencies and two bankruptcy trustees.
At the center of the squabbling are e-mails sent by top executives at MF Global — communications that have been withheld from federal authorities, according to the people briefed on the matter. Investigators suspect the e-mails, sent just before the firm collapsed, contain clues about who transferred the money from protected customer accounts.
The clashes stem from the conflicting interests of those involved. James W. Giddens, the trustee overseeing the liquidation of the brokerage unit, is charged with returning money to wronged customers. That mission is at odds with the interests of Louis J. Freeh, the trustee overseeing the liquidation of the firm, who is seeking to recover money for MF Global’s creditors. (JP Morgan at the head of them - Jesse)...
“We understand the frustration of customers, but the C.F.T.C. must take the necessary time — however long it takes — to get to the bottom of what happened at MF Global and take appropriate actions,” the agency said in a statement on Tuesday. (That could be a while. They have been sitting on their investigation of the silver market for over three years - Jesse)
Customers, including farmers, hedge funds and other small traders, have been very frustrated with the pace of the investigation and the dearth of updates about their missing money...
Read the rest here.
"Nothing is so unworthy of a civilized nation as allowing itself to be governed without opposition by an irresponsible clique that has yielded to base instinct."
Sophie Scholl
