Perhaps not to you but you originally stated that they knowingly mailed it to the firm they were performing the bank asset verification against. To me that would be far greater negligence then simply not having the procedures in place to prevent this loophole from being exploited as it was. Orders of magnitude differences in incompetence.
Well, I still don't understand what loophole there was if the NFA contacted the bank through the bank's address which is available to anyone with a web browser and half a brain. Paper documents from the bank would have been just as effective as this "new" electronic verification method at uncovering the fraud. I just can't understand how Wasendorf could tell the NFA where to send bank verification requests. The NFA invited the fraud by allowing their audit subject to corrupt the process. Heads should roll and the entire system should be over-hauled. Yes, criminals will always commit crimes but this process actually encouraged/enabled it.
This exerpt came from an NFA Complaint in February of 2012 in which PFG was fined $700K regarding their shoddy compliance practices. Seems that the NFA thought their third party auditor was suspect: Page 4, Item 10: http://www.nfa.futures.org/basicnet/CaseDocument.aspx?seqnum=3182 "An additional concern was the fact that PFG used a firm named Investment Reference ( "IR" ) as its third party provider for conducting annual GIB audits. IR is owned and operated by an individual named Dennis Stahr ("Stahr"). Information available on NFA's BASIC system reflects that Stahr has served as an AP and/or principal at four different firms that have been barred from the futures industry for sales practice fraud."
Why dont you explain to us how this game works genius? Trust me, I wont be touching your makets anymore and same with milions of others. Do you really want to defend this stupidity beyond belief where this happned to years in a row. Need I say more you naive kiss ass patiriot?
jeb, while you may be technically correct in that administratively some other firm may actually physically clear the trade (I do not know) but effectively you are "all in at AMP". You wire to AMP Global Clearing, you money is in their segregation account and that is the counter party you will look to if things go badly. I debated the same issue some years ago regarding Velocity. At the time -- and maybe still -- you wired to them and you counter partied with them. The name of the game is counter party exposure. Who are they? Are they cowboys -- Corzine; if they do options -- AMP does not, a plus -- do they have the systems in place to monitor commodities option traders who are calculated on SPAN? Somewhat more complex margin to run than stock options and, if poorly done, can blow up most of the Western world! Again, I'm not singling out AMP except as an example of small firm. They may be the best guys in the world but IB has the balance sheet and maybe will be bailed by the government if needed -- who knows? No one in Washington would notice if AMP had a problem.
Weasaldorf was permitted to outsmart your system since at least February 2010 when he had less than $10 million in funds. This is sleeping at the wheel with a bottle of whiskey in your hand while shouting, yippee this is fun!
Seems the NFA has had doubts about Stahr for awhile. I just downloaded a complaint (International Commodity Clearing and Steven I. Zander) which stated that Stahr's audits were "woefully ineffective and rarely found any deficiencies". So here we have the NFA still relying on audits from a firm more than 5 years after it had found their audits to be in the NFA's words "woefully ineffective". What the hell is going on, this is just a joke of a regulatory system. I see no systemic problems here... moving along... /end sarcarsm
He tried to commit suicide in a Chevy Cavalier. At least we know he didn't blow the $225 million or so on luxury automobiles.