On the First Day of Christmas, the SEC Scrubbed MF Global Documents Enron-Style


http://english.economicpolicyjournal.co ... ubbed.html

Say what you will about the Securities and Exchange Commission's approach to "regulating" the capital markets--from the Rip Van Winkle approach to Madoff, to the under-the-bus-tossing method of treating MF Global customers. But at least we can sleep soundly under the warm blanket of integrity that is its Electronic Data Gathering And Retrieval (EDGAR) system--that internet portal available to all, which maintains the financial reporting and related documents of tens of thousands of entities that transact business in the US capital markets. Or can we?

While the more commonly referenced files on EDGAR, such as public company annual 10-K's and quarterly 10-Q's, are fully digital and searchable, some filings are simply scanned from hard copies. While often overlooked, these documents, such as the annual audited financials of broker-dealers, can yield precious insights relevant to their parent holding companies.

For instance, we wrote shortly after MF Global's bankruptcy that the last audited financials of the broker unit, MF Global Inc., revealed many more details about the famed European debt repo-to-maturity trades than were disclosed in its parent's filings. Not the least of which was that the trades were with an affiliate on terms to the derogation of the broker customers. Eighty percent of the profits were shipped to the affiliate, while ALL risk remained at the broker unit (see Note 11 to the financial statements embedded at the end).

It was while searching for this very filing recently that were were confronted with a giant Orwellian sucking sound--for the downloadable PDF link from the EDGAR reference page had simply been removed.

First, see the filing for the year ended March 31, 2010, which is still intact [click any image in this post to enlarge].

more at link

The Neverending MF Global Story: Regulators Block The Truth

NEW YORK, NY

http://www.forbes.com/sites/francinemck ... oming-out/

Instead of looking out for MF Global investors – and customers who are still waiting for their money – it looks like regulators and the bankruptcy trustees are busy suppressing information. Instead of full transparency, regulators and the trustees are holding onto crucial details that might tell us all who was asleep at the wheel when the broker/dealer and futures commission merchant (FCM) headed over the cliff.

snip...
Here we are, more than two months after the forced liquidation of the MF Global broker dealer - it’s important to note this was no voluntary bankruptcy filing but a liquidation forced on MF Global by the Securities Investor Protection Corp – and the missing $1.2 billion of customer funds has not yet shown up.

The customer assets are gone, but no one in the officialdom - the two bankruptcy trustees, the CFTC, the SEC, or the Department of Justice – wants to admit just yet that the bankruptcy estate and, therefore, the customers will come up short.

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No one but the CME Group will say that out loud. The CME Group timeline of events, updated most recently as sworn testimony by Terry Duffy to Congress, is the only reliable timeline out there.

When the trustees, the regulators, and the FBI finally stop looking under sofa cushions for the missing customer funds, they’ll have to start preparing lawsuits against third-parties. These potential “deep-pockets” include directors, JP Morgan, Jeffries, who underwrote the bond issue in August, and auditor PwC.

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The Department of Justice will be forced to file criminal charges against someone.

What evidence will they base these lawsuits and criminal complaints on? Typically, a bankruptcy trustee hires a bankruptcy examiner to develop the theories and uncover the evidence used to hold executives, directors, bankers, underwriters, auditors and attorneys responsible for the failure of the firm and any fraud.

That hasn’t happened here. Why not?

snip...
So much, also, for an investigation by the broker/dealer bankruptcy Trustee Gidden’s of what happened at MF Global by his law firm. Gidden’s firm is both customer and vendor to MF Global’s auditors, PwC and vendor to JP Morgan, MF Globals banker and biggest creditor. And so much for an investigation by the broker/dealer trustee that uses Ernst & Young as forensic accountants, the same firm, according to sources, that designed and implemented MF Global’s internal controls in time for their first Sarbanes-Oxley review and the firm that Randy McDonald, the MF Global CFO prior to current CFO and PwC alumni Henri Steenkamp, came from.

More at link: http://www.forbes.com/sites/francinemck ... oming-out/

This entire MF Global fiasco is blatantly flaunting their corruption! Why has no one gone to jail? Why haven't customer funds been returned rather than called "lost" as all existing assets are dissolved and paid out to creditors?

WSJ "explains" how $1.2 billion "vaporized"... http://www.zerohedge.com/news/3-months- ... -vaporized