Iowa futures broker (Peregrine Financial Group) forged bank records for years....

[dixiegrrrrl]

Reuters) - Russell Wasendorf Sr., the sole owner and chairman of stricken futures broker Peregrine Financial Group, Inc., intercepted and forged bank documents for more than two years to cover up hundreds of millions of dollars in missing money, a person close to the situation told Reuters.

The National Futures Association on Monday froze the funds of the Iowa-based brokerage, which does business as PFGBest, after discovering an estimated $220 million shortfall in PFGBest's customer accounts. The NFA had said in an affidavit that Wasendorf "may have falsified bank records."

Wasendorf, 64, is reported to be in a coma after a suicide attempt Monday morning, according to a complaint filed by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission on Tuesday that accuses Wasendorf and Peregrine of fraud.

The source offered new details on how Wasendorf allegedly carried out the deceit, which involved the forging of confidential documents that the NFA uses to verify a broker's cash balance with its depository institution.

More:http://tinyurl.com/7b4yu2a
(opens to reuters.com/article)

[PoliticAverse]

1. Not mentioned was that Wasendorf was on an NFA advisory committee.

'Wasendorf had set up a post office box in Cedar Falls, Iowa, according to a second person involved in the matter. It was to that post office box that NFA sent the documents, which were addressed to the bank."

I guess they couldn't be bothered to look up the bank's mailing address themselves and no one involved had ever seen a movie about con-men.

Also apparently no one at the Post Office thought it odd that mail addressed to a bank wasn't going to the bank.



'

[dixiegrrrrl]

3. ohh, you made me look up who was on the NFA Advisory Comm:

Looks like...lawyers , of several TBTF banks:

Futures Commission Merchant Advisory Committee

David M. Battan
Vice President and General Counsel
Interactive Brokers, LLC
Washington, DC
(term ending February 2015)

Bruce A. Beatus
Assistant General Counsel
Bank of America Merrill Lynch
Chicago, Illinois
(term ending February 2014)

Maria Chiodi
Director and Counsel
Credit Suisse
New York, New York
(term ending February 2014)


Clarence Delbridge, III
Executive Vice President
FC Stone, LLC
Chicago, Illinois
(term ending February 2014)

Robert F. Klein
Managing Director and General Counsel
Citigroup Global Markets, Inc.
New York, New York
(term ending February 2014)


Donald R. Levine
Senior Counsel
Jefferies Bache LLC
New York, New York
(term ending February 2015)

Bonnie Litt
Managing Director and
Associate General Counsel
Goldman Sachs & Co.
New York, New York
(term ending February 2015)

Marc Nagel
Chief Operating Officer
Dorman Trading LLC
Chicago, IL
(term ending February 2014)

Susan M. Schultz
Glenview, Illinois
(term ending February 2014)

http://www.nfa.futures.org/NFA-about-nfa/committees/advisory-committee.HTML

[dixiegrrrrl]

4. Hmm..isn't that postal fraud?

Intercepting the mail from a bank?
Wonder if the PO will investigate?

[PoliticAverse]

5. Where's Mitch McDeere when you need him ? n/t

[rurallib]

2. isn't the invisible hand of the market supposed to stop this?

[PoliticAverse]

6. Sometimes you just get the visible finger... n/t

[mbperrin]

8. HA! You made me laugh out loud,

and that's not so easy these days. Thank you!

[mbperrin]

7. I know! But it's so damned invisible that I'm starting to think it's just a made up story.

Shhhh. Heretic.