© Brendan McDermid/ReutersJon Corzine, foreground, a former Goldman Sachs executive and New Jersey governor, was trying to revive his Wall Street career.
Federal regulators have discovered that hundreds of millions of dollars in customer money has gone missing from MF Global in recent days, prompting an investigation into the brokerage firm, which is run by Jon S. Corzine, the former New Jersey governor, several people briefed on the matter said on Monday.
The recognition that money was missing scuttled at the 11th hour an agreement to sell a major part of MF Global to a rival brokerage firm. MF Global had staked its survival on completing the deal. Instead, the New York-based firm filed for bankruptcy on Monday.
Regulators are examining whether MF Global diverted some customer funds to support its own trades as the firm teetered on the brink of collapse.
The discovery that money could not be located might simply reflect sloppy internal controls at MF Global. It is still unclear where the money went. At first, as much as $950 million was believed to be missing, but as the firm sorted through its bankruptcy, that figure fell to less than $700 million by late Monday, the people briefed on the matter said. Additional funds are expected to trickle in over the coming days.
Comment: It's important to keep in mind during this era of purposely generated economic and financial crises that when the media tells us that the "Greek government is teetering on the brink of collapse" or "the euro is in turmoil again" or "the markets plunged on the news that XYZ", what they're really doing is conveying the message to leaders like Papandreou and the masses at large that their insolence will not stand. They will be crushed and will submit to "austerity measures" (slavery) one way or another. And they do that primarily by deliberately creating turmoil on the markets, speculating and gambling currencies to give the impression that they can pull the rug out from under a whole country's economy.