They were watching porn with the SEC. 300 mil is alot of hookers and blow. Hope the dude had fun. Since this turd is not connected like John C. I wonder how long before Obum-a makes an object lesson out of this.
This is yet another example of government oversight being such an illusion. The CFTC actually got a budget increase for FY 2011 - up to $203M. The undeniable fact of the matter is that if the government auditors had simply double-checked the accounting figures directly with the FCM's bank, then the damage wrought by MF and PFG would have certainly been considerably less. It seems that the CFTC auditors take the FCMs word at face value for account balances without ever checking directly with the bank supposedly holding the FCM funds. Yep, bigger government is the answer.
Which was the last equity broker to have this sort of problem? This only happens to the brokers without any federal guarantee. Not saying gov't should backstop futures brokers, but it's too flip to say that tighter regulation might not have helped the futures merchants and more importantly the customers.
Now the word is that the RW pushed the money offshore into some RE-development that was failing. I don't think the CME is going to be picking up this check...
I think the feds should absolutely back-stop FCMs as is done with equities. Obviously the only method is to actually LOOK at the books forensically. HTF did this Wasendorf clown get by with $5MM in the box for this long?
Was PFG and exchange guaranteed broker like Vision? If that was the case doesn't the exchange have to make all customers whole regardless or reason?
This is my key takeaway as well. With all of the ability to toss data around these days, how they could have missed requiring the banks to supply that data directly is beyond me. Obviously, whatever costs the banks incur would ultimately be passed on to the account holders, but who cares? That's a cost I'd be glad to help defray if it means more objective reporting of bank assets.