Posted on 12/13/2011 7:45:39 AM PST by ken5050
Senate Agricultural Committee hearing on MF Global bankruptcy just starting. Corzine will testify later. First witnesses are MF Global customers, to talk about the impact of the bankruptcy on their lives and businesses. Also scheduled to appear is the trustee for MF Global, who is expected to provide details of what happened, and, oh yeah..where's the money now, the $ 1.2 billion...
What will be most interesting, IMHO, is that given that this is a Senate committee, controlled by the Dems, how the Democrat senators question Corzine, especially those from swing states...the degree of agressiveness, even hostility, they display, will be telling.
Of course Corzine knew. Probably made the transfers himself.
Any MFer who agreed to make an illegal transfer for Corzine better have a huge paper trail.
Direct link at C-SPAN.org, can jump to any point in the hearings.
I watched most of it today - I didn’t pay much attention to deems vs pubs, but noticed one thing...
They never asked the primary question to Corzine. Anyone notice that?
“Did you transfer any money out of customers accounts?”
Now, they can’t be that dumb, or can they?
I felt sorry for the one on the right (TV right) - young smart guy - he got very red in the face when being questioned toward the end.
I think he realizes that his brilliant career is, like, “over, dude”. I wonder why he didn’t spill the beans on Corzine?
I have the feeling that the senators, all over them, are scared of lifting up the rocks to see what id under them, for fear of frightening the sheeple into a stampede.
The party is over, and they know it, but don’t want to be the ones to turn off the music.
Abelow also needs to be nailed——he misled Congress when asked about his relationship w/ Corzine.
Said he was Goc Corz’s COS-—but that was after Abelow held a top post-—as NJ Treasury Secy-—where he and Corzine controlled ALL Nj tax assets.
The cows are out of this barn..the barn is burning to the ground...and Corzine is kaput..I repeat...he looks like he should be on a suicide watch..
Here's another BOMBSHELL ...
(no link)
Treasury rumors focus on Corzine As secretary wavers, ex-governor is eyed
Star-Ledger, The (Newark, NJ) - Friday, August 5, 2011
Author: Ginger Gibson and Salvador Rizzo, Statehouse Bureau
As speculation about how long Timothy Geithner will remain as U.S. Treasury secretary simmered yesterday, former Gov. Jon Corzine ‘s name began to bubble up as a possible replacement.
Corzine , considered for the nation's top financial office after Obama was elected, has emerged on speculative short lists as someone who could take over if Geithner exited before the president's first term expires.
Several sources close to Corzine while he was still in public office said yesterday the former governor has always had an interest in holding the job.
But the political climate in Washington could make Corzine ‘s selection impossible, insiders said. The country faces dire economic prospects and a hyperpartisan divide in Congress.
The New York Times reported yesterday that Geithner will likely stay through the remainder of Obama’s first term, but hasn't made up his mind and could depart sooner because of family concerns and the strain of years in Washington. Media outlets from the Associated Press to the Los Angeles Times reported his departure was a possibility.
The uncertainty about Geithner ‘s future at the Treasury spurred speculation in media outlets ranging from CNBC and Reuters to Politico and MarketWatch that Corzine , a former U.S. senator and Goldman Sachs chairman, could replace him.
It was dismissed yesterday by Corzine spokesman Josh Zeitz.
“This has all been idle speculation,” he said. “It's just another example of how the 24-hour news cycle, when it has nothing else to report, finds a bunch of coincidental evidence.”
Since leaving public office, Corzine has worked at New York investment firm MF Global, a fledgling company he vowed to transform into a power player on Wall Street.
“All I understand and based on all his behavior, he has no intention to do anything other than invest his heart and soul into reinvesting MF Global into a world-class investment bank,” said Angelo Genova, a Newark attorney and Democratic backer.
But in a recent bond offering at MF Global, investors were told if Corzine left to take a federal appointed position before 2013, the interest rate in the payout would increase by 1 percentage point.
(snip)
Terrence A. Duffy profile—forbes.com
Executive Chairman of the Board
CME Group, Inc.
Chicago , IL
Sector: FINANCIAL / Investment Brokerage - National
52 Years Old
Terrence A. Duffy, 52, Mr. Duffy has served as our Executive Chairman since 2006 when he became an officer of the Company. Previously he served as Chairman of the board since 2002 and our Vice Chairman from 1998 until 2002. Mr. Duffy has been a member of our board since 1995. He has been President of TDA Trading, Inc. since 1981 and has been a member of CME for more than 25 years. In 2002, he was appointed by President Bush to serve on a National Saver Summit on retirement savings. He also was appointed by President Bush and confirmed by the U.S. Senate in 2003 as a member of the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board. Mr. Duffy currently serves on the board of World Business Chicago, the board of Saint Xavier University and is co-chair of the Mayo Clinic Greater Chicago Leadership Council.
Obama and Biden made several campaign visits to NJ for Gov C’s reelection effort.
Obama starred in ads for Corzine-—which ran relentlessly on pricey NY media.
Obama directed the WH take over Corzine’s campaign.
OBAMA WAS DESPERATE FOR CORZINE TO WIN. Obama was heavily invested in the NJ gubernatorial race—one of only two statewide races that were a test for Obama’s policies. Virginia also elected a Republican. Obama campaigned in NJ three times, Biden was there twice. Obama TV ads ran relentlessly on costly NY media.
Obama put the power of the WH political machine behind Corzine. The NY Times reported:
(a) every TV ad Corzine put on the air was being screened by Obama’s WH “geniuses.”
(b) Corzine’s aides gave the WH daily briefings.
(c) Obama’s pollsters took over for Corzine’s polling team, and,
(d) White House operatives were on the ground for internal strategy sessions.
(e) Obama sent NJ $17.2 billion “stimulus” which promptly disappeared.
All of it led to Corzine’s humiliating defeat at the hands of a conservative Republican with no war chest to match Corzine’s.
Just goes to show.
However, the potential of Corzine leaving MF Global spooked some investors and potential investors in MFGH bond issue.
Ironically, Corzine was deemed so essential to MF Global by potential investors that MFGH hired Jefferies and Co. team to structure a "key man insurance" policy that would compensate (in the event of Corzine leaving) and still attract potential customers, but which wouldn't cost them too much upfront. Hence, 1 percent premium payout in case of specific event occurring.
Nothing illegal or problematic about that, actually an elegant solution. It is, however, ironic that the "indispensable man" Corzine was the prime architect of the leveraged layered "repo-to-maturity" trading strategy that directly caused downfall of MFGH.
More details on specifics of this issue here:
Obamas Bad Bargain (the left is becoming unhinged) - FR, post #48, 2011 August 03
Just watched the morning session...
Kent Conrad (D-ND) and Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) were actually softballing the questions, even trying to provide “plausible” justifications or explanations for “what happened”.
Corzine tried to use CFTC Rule 1.25 eligibility as justification, but that dog won’t hunt.
Great post ... makes perfect sense.
sfl
How does it all tie into J. C. Flowers & Company, et al?
<><>Corzine, Abelow and Flowers were G/S cronies.....then colluded on investment deals while Corzine held public office....and all ended up as MF Global principals.
<><> MF Global principal Brad Abelow was Corzine’s appointee as NJ Treasury Secy——controlling ALL NJ assets. Abelow then became Corzine's COS. Gov and COS started an investment business while getting govt paychecks——but the two “financial geniuses” said they did not know this was illegal.
<><> MF Global principal Chris Flowers handled Sen/Gov Corzine’s “blind assets” ......Flowers led the taskeover of a Japanese bank for Corzine——Sen Corzine passed a bill giving the bank a US tax break......said he did not know the bill benefitted him.
<><> Corzine registered three corporations in super-secret financial haven——Delaware——BEFORE taking office.
(no link)
A Dealmaker’s Rare Misdeal - Washington Was Wild Card In Flowers’s Bid For Sallie Mae
Washington Post, The (DC) - Friday, October 12, 2007
Author: Thomas Heath and David Cho, Washington Post Staff Writers
J. Christopher Flowers, whose bid to buy Sallie Mae has deteriorated into a bitter legal battle, has a resume that ranks him with Wall Street’s savviest dealmakers: coolly calculating architect of one of private equity’s most profitable buyouts. Goldman Sachs partner at 30. Owner of a $53 million home on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. Manager of New Jersey Gov. Jon S. Corzine ‘s personal fortune. Net worth of $2 billion.
But he has been largely unknown outside business circles during the eight years he’s spent quietly building a financial services empire. Now Flowers, 49, has been drawn into the glare of publicity because of an apparent misstep: He bid more for Sallie Mae than he now says it’s worth.
The dust-up with the Reston student lender, formally known as SLM Corp., has interrupted the charmed run of this “hard-core capitalist,” as a college friend describes Flowers. And it has forced the bespectacled Flowers, who speaks Greek and Latin and prefers chess and the piano to golf and cigars, into a political arena more familiar to his opponent — SLM Chairman Albert L. Lord, a Washington insider and veteran business infighter.
Since Flowers pulled his $60-a-share offer off the table last month, dropping it to $50, Lord has played hardball. He rebuffed the revised bid and has gone to court to force Flowers and his partners, including Bank of America and J.P. Morgan, to pay a $900 million breakup fee. Lord went public yesterday, defying Flowers in an interview and an investors’ conference call.
(snip)
Meanwhile, dealmaking doesn’t stop: Even as Flowers is fighting Sallie Mae in Delaware Chancery Court, he’s making a $30.6 billion play for Northern Rock, a British bank that nearly went under last month.
The son of a Harvard Business School administrator, Flowers went to Harvard to study applied mathematics as an undergraduate. He skipped business school, diving right in with Goldman.
There, he quickly made a name for himself, not only for succeeding without the requisite master’s degree, but also for the speed with which he became the head of the division that buys financial firms. He also became a protege and close friend of Corzine , who was chairman of the company before being purged in 1999.
Although Flowers is widely credited with helping to structure Goldman’s initial public offering that year, he had already seen a ceiling on his career there and decided to launch out on his own in 1998.
“I was on the losing side of a powerful struggle at Goldman. I was aligned with Corzine ,” Flowers said. “I realized I had gone as far as I was going to go, and it was time to move on.”
Flowers was no less successful after leaving Goldman, buying banks and other financial firms in Germany, Japan, the Netherlands and the United States.
Private equity tends to avoid the technical and regulatory complexities of buying financial firms. And since banks are already loaded with debt, it’s difficult to swing profitable leveraged deals. But where others saw risk, Flowers found opportunity.
His big breakthrough came in 2000 when he led a group of investors to put up $1 billion to buy Long-Term Credit Bank of Japan, later renamed Shinsei. The takeover and turnaround at the bank, which Flowers brought public in 2004, is not only considered the most profitable private-equity deal in history — investors saw their money multiply sevenfold, while Flowers’s personal stake multiplied 13 times — but it also became a model for the entire Japanese financial system. He is still Shinsei’s largest shareholder.
“He set the gold standard with his investment in Shinsei, one of the greatest buyouts ever done,” said David Rubenstein, co-founder of the Carlyle Group, based in the District. Corzine called the deal “the defining transaction in Chris’s life.”
The next year, he founded his own private-equity fund. Today, his J. C. Flowers II fund manages $7 billion, including $200 million of Flowers’s money.
Rick Schifter, a partner with TPG Capital, based in Texas, said Flowers’s success is due partly to his involvement in details. He recalled Flowers shuttling from room to room during one negotiation in a Manhattan office tower a couple of years ago. With only a stack of papers in front of him, Flowers was orchestrating the financing of the business, lining up who would run the company while calculating how much the firm was worth.
“He can almost be a one-man band, capable of implementing all aspects of a transaction,” Schifter said. “He doesn’t feel he needs to turn to a close number two and get advice. You could say it means he’s a bit of a loner.”
Rodgin Cohen, a managing partner at the New York law firm Sullivan & Cromwell, said another Flowers asset is his cool head. “He gets upset less than almost anybody I know at that level,” Cohen said. “He’s somebody who’s not going to let emotion or concerns about prestige bother him.”
Fannie Mae chief executive Daniel H. Mudd, who worked on the Shinsei bank deal when he headed GE Capital-Japan, said Flowers has been mischaracterized in some reporting on the Sallie Mae fight.
“The caricature here that this is some kind of table-pounding, saber-rattling sharpie from New York . . . was totally not my experience,” Mudd said. “This is a very rational, thoughtful, cerebral kind of guy.”
Mudd recalls a tense meeting where “we were sitting at a table in a Tokyo restaurant and the deal was coming apart nine ways from Sunday and everybody at the table had a different opinion. . . . I remember Chris sitting there, totally calm, and looking and listening to everybody. Very calmly and matter-of-factly, based on the economics and not on the emotion, he put all the comments back in the box and got the deal back on track. He knew what we had to do.”
Flowers said he is drawn to the private-equity business “first and foremost because it’s fun. But of course our business is obviously to make money, and that’s what we want to do, and that’s what our investors expect.”
He has given Harvard about $25 million, including the endowment of a professorship in honor of his parents. He and his wife, Mary White, have a charitable foundation, and one of their favorite causes is “Nets for Life,” which provides antimalarial bed nets to 16 countries.
Federal Elections Commission records show that Flowers has given $289,208 to politicians and committees of both parties. In the interview, he said he has no passion about politics, but mentioned his support for Corzine and Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.).
Friends and business associates say he has a wry sense of humor but is mostly all business.
“He feels life is short and let’s get down to business,” said a Harvard classmate, David Apgar. Apgar recalls the young Flowers as an early and unabashed capitalist.
“I would make the case for social democracy, and he would be making arguments for Darwinian capitalism. I would say, ‘What would you do with all that money that is our responsibility to go out and earn?’ “ said Apgar, a managing director at the Corporate Executive Board in Washington. “He would say, ‘It doesn’t matter. He who has the most at the end wins.’ “
(snip)
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/25/nyregion/25corzine.html?pagewanted=all
Meanwhile, Next Door, It’s Team Obama for Corzine
New York Times, The (NY) - Friday, September 25, 2009
Author: DAVID M. HALBFINGER and DAVID KOCIENIEWSKI Adam Nagourney contributed reporting.
Abstract: Pres Obama’s political team is fully engaged in getting Gov Jon S Corzine re-elected in New Jersey, which is one of only two states with gubernatorial election this year; Obama’s aides acknowledge that Corzine loss to Republican challenger Christopher J Christie would be rebuke to Obama, affecting his ability to pass major legislation and public perceptions of his party’s power; photos (M)
While President Obama’s political team seeks to nudge David A. Paterson out of the New York governorship, they are fully engaged in trying to get Gov. Jon S. Corzine re-elected here.
Every TV ad that Mr. Corzine puts on the air is being screened by the president’s team. The governor’s aides are giving daily briefings to the White House. Mr. Obama’s pollsters have taken over for Mr. Corzine ‘s polling team, and White House operatives are on the ground for everything from internal strategy sessions to obscure pep rallies with Latino supporters.
On Thursday, Valerie Jarrett, a senior adviser to Mr. Obama, promoted Mr. Corzine in meetings with Democratic women in the morning and black ministers in the afternoon.
In addition, Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and a parade of cabinet secretaries are coming to the state to try to boost Mr. Corzine ‘s dismal poll numbers.
The state is one of only two nationwide holding governor’s contests this year. And Mr. Obama’s aides acknowledge that a loss in this deep-blue state would be interpreted as a rebuke of Mr. Obama, affecting his ability to pass major legislation and the public’s perceptions of his party’s power.
(snip)
Flowers was the guy who had "passive" but sizeable investment in MFGH, which was losing money as the brokerage (David I. Shamis, 37, was Flowers' representative on the BoD).
After Corzine lost re-election for governor in 2010, Flowers offered him to run and turn around MFGH. Corzine's plan was to remake MFGH into a mini-GS, by starting trading in currencies and derivatives, using company debt and cash flow from brokerage unit as the funding capital.
Corzine used generally safe "repo-to-maturity" strategy, but layered and leveraged the trades up to 33:1. When European sovereign debt prices came down, the request for much more capital ("margin call") came from CME and CFTC, shortly after CFTC audit.
Flowers and Corzine began shopping the company around, and reached an agreement "in principle" with IBG (Interactive Brokers Group), whose head honcho was already a big investor in MFGH. But the next day the news of "money missing from segregated customers' accounts" hit the fan and the deal fell through.
J.C. Flowers can't be happy with this at all, besides losing a bunch of money invested in MF Global and losing a political investment in his former friend, but I don't see how this particular scandal reaches or leads directly to him.
This post has an excerpt and a link to WSJ article on relationship between Flowers and Corzine:
Dismal Futures With MF Global -Global Heist - FR, post #42, 2011 November 22
Direct link:
Jon Corzine and J. Christopher Flowers Friendship Tossed in MF Global Storm - WSJ, by Gina Chon, 2011 November 10
Flowers dodged a bullet with SLM.
In April of 2007 SML stood at around $41 per share. He offered $60 and the stock went to all-time high around $57 in June. In December of 2007 it was $20, bottomed out around $3 in March 2009, and hovering between $13-$17 in 2011.
Obama’s government takeover of student loans industry doesn’t help SLM, either.
..when Duffy drops his BOMB..Stabenow was gobsmacked....and she cut off the hearing..
Duffy is a sharp duck. Had excellent presentation of the facts and, more importantly, backed it up with timeline, despite having the fewest resources and being frozen out of "investigations" by DOJ and CFTC (fortunately, he has "auditors").
Debbie actually tried to intimidate Duffy and implicitly almost threatened him... fortunately, he not only stood his ground but pushed back. He seemed to be the only one who was comfortable giving testimony. Others looked like fish out of water, nervous, yet he was the only non-lawyer on that panel.
Stabenow was also trying push the "system failure" / "not enough regulation" meme. Duffy very effectively refuted it (again, using timeline and documented third-party testimony) and she didn't like what she heard. Others were non-committal, obviously knowing that there was no "system failure" (even Lehman Bros. and Refco going bankrupt wouldn't dream of dipping into segregated customers' accounts and kept them intact).
Ann Barnhardt doesn't need to worry about "the system" being destroyed, just needs to run from institutions run by crooks and frauds like Madoff and Corzine when they take over. Screaming "The entire system has been utterly destroyed by the MF Global collapse" only plays into the hands of Stabenows and Obamas working to create more rules and regulations, for the likes of Corzines to slip through.
Duffy is also the one who increased the payout guarantee for the trustee / court. He pushed for farmers, not WS, to get their money back ASAP. Everyone confirmed that segregated accounts will be first in line to receive recovered funds.
People who complain(ed) about CME should watch this panel, and who is actually doing something to help them, instead of those who are "in the news" wringing their hands about the plight of those who have been defrauded.
C-SPAN MF GLOBAL BANKRUPTCY INVESTIGATION, PANEL 3 DEC 13, 2011
BTW..did you all catch the little gem that when Corzine became head of MF Global, he was granted a waiver from having to retake the NASD Series 7 & Principals exams..
Roberts was very impressive-—hard to believe a pol has some stones. Then again, he knows the fraud here is so pervasive, there’s not much to lose, and everything to gain politically. Makes me wonder if the OSW protests did some actual good....????
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