Corzine: “I see nutting!” [Reader Post]

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But see if you can tell what’s missing from this story:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Former MF Global chief Jon Corzine apologized to customers, employees and investors who have suffered because of the brokerage firm’s collapse, but said he does not know where missing customer money is.

“Their plight weighs on my mind every day — every hour,” Corzine, a former U.S. senator, said in lengthy remarks prepared for delivery on Thursday before a hearing of the U.S. House of Representatives Agriculture Committee.

“I simply do not know where the money is, or why the accounts have not been reconciled to date,” he said.

Corzine’s contrite but defensive remarks are his first since MF Global’s October 31 bankruptcy and his resignation days later. Revelations of massive bets on European sovereign debt caused markets to lose confidence in the firm.

The search for hundreds of millions of dollars in missing customer funds has sent reverberations through the farm belt and trading floors, and has attracted the attention of the FBI and federal prosecutors. Thousands of customers have had their money frozen.

In separate testimony, a top executive of futures exchange operator CME Group Inc said MF Global misused hundreds of millions of dollars of customer funds by moving the money to its own accounts, the strongest accusation yet against the bankrupt futures brokerage.

“Transfers of customer funds for the benefit of the firm constitute serious violations of our rules and of the Commodity Exchange Act,” CME Executive Chairman Terrence Duffy said in prepared remarks.

CME, the biggest U.S. futures exchange operator, was a hands-on regulator of MF Global. Duffy said the brokerage admitted during a call with regulators that customer money was transferred out of segregation to the firm’s own accounts.

The court-appointed trustee has estimated the shortfall of customer money at $1.2 billion, but CME has disputed that figure as being too high. In his prepared testimony, Duffy indicated the shortfall was roughly half that amount.

Neither MF Global nor any of its executives has been charged with wrongdoing.

“STUNNED” BY MISSING CUSTOMER MONEY

Nine witnesses are scheduled at the hearing, but Corzine, a senator from 2001-2006 and a former governor of New Jersey, is the star.

He said that while it is difficult for him to reconstruct the chaotic events leading up to the bankruptcy because he no longer has access to relevant documents, he feels compelled to answer lawmakers’ questions.

“As a former United States Senator who recognizes the importance of congressional oversight, and recognizing my position as former chief executive officer in these terrible circumstances, I believe it is appropriate that I attempt to respond to your inquiries,” Corzine said.

In his testimony, Corzine distanced himself from some hands-on aspects of the firm’s business practices.

“Even when I was at MF Global, my involvement in the firm’s clearing, settlement and payment mechanisms and accounting was limited,” Corzine said.

“I was stunned when I was told on Sunday, October 30, 2011, that MF Global could not account for many hundreds of millions of dollars of client money.”

He said he accepts responsibility for the repo-to-maturity trades that related to the firm’s $6.3 billion bet on European sovereign debt.

“At the time that MF Global entered into the transactions, I believed that its investments in short-term European debt securities were prudent,” he said.

However, he said MF Global reduced leverage during his tenure, and that he does “not claim to be an accountant” regarding the treatment of that exposure.

Mary Schapiro, the chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, has said her agency is probing the accounting treatment that helped mask MF Global’s exposure to risky foreign sovereign debt. The SEC is also probing the disclosure of that exposure.

Steve Luparello, vice chairman of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, said in his testimony on Thursday that MF Global was not fully candid with FINRA in 2010 when the firm was asked about its exposure to European debt.

Luparello said the firm indicated in late September 2010 that it “did not have any such positions” in European sovereign debt.

“We later learned that the firm began entering into transactions that carried European debt exposure in mid-September 2010,” he said.

The Chairman and CEO knows nutting. Well, why not? It worked for Terry McAuliffe.

“I see nutting!”

Corzine has a history of not knowing anything happening in companies he runs:

The SEC spokesman gave the same response to our inquiry about a Goldman-Sachs case when that investment firm was headed by Sen. Jon Corzine, D-N.J. Here’s the question:

“A class-action suit and a former broker have accused Goldman-Sachs of forcing underwriting investors to pay artificially high prices for certain stocks. Published reports [in the Washington Times] indicate the matter has been brought to the attention of the SEC. What is the status of that investigation?”

Again, no comment beyond the above stock answer. However, the Times’ story says the whistle-blowing broker, Nicholas Maier, had discussed the matter with SEC investigators.

Corzine claims he knew nothing about such schemes when he ran the firm from 1994 to 1999. He left a multimillionaire to run for the Senate, an office he obtained by burying New Jersey voters with an avalanche of ads paid for by his deep pockets.

And Corzine was getting paid $1.5 million a year for not knowing anything.

This is they guy who was considered a replacement for Timmy Geithner.

This is who Obama described as “Our Wall St. guy.”

Goldman Sachs is the bane of our nation. It should not be dissolved. It should be blown up.

So did you notice what was missing?

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Of course. This is an easy quiz. The word “Democrat.” If there is a negative article about a Democrat, then do not expect to find that word in the title or in the first 3 or 4 paragraphs, if at all.

Criminal investigation is also missing.

Corzine, Maxine, Sharpton, Jackson Jr & SR, Pelosi, Boxer, Holder, are politicians that need to be perped walked and jailed.

Top 5 Reasons Corzine doesn’t know where the money went:

5. Math is hard.

4. We are only talking $1.2 billion, which pocket change to lose for Democrats.

3. Mistook online gambling site for European futures exchange.

2. Thought MF stood for Missing Funds anyway, so what’s the difference?

1. Hi-speed Train to appear later, no worries!

Sarbanes-Oxley holds the CFO and CEO legally responsible for the funds.

Why Corzine wasn’t arrested right then and there only shows that the entire US government is a sham and a farce.

One set of laws for us, one for them.

Corzine made a huge mess at Goldman Sachs when he worked there, they wanted him out.

While he was Governor of New Jersey the “Unemployment Funds” Disappeared….when the economy went belly up, NJ had to Borrow the UE funds from the Government, to the tune of half a Billion dollars to keep the Unemployment funding afloat….

All [Liberals in NJ] just “Loved” Corzine… /Sarcasm included… Now they see [but never will admit] how piss poor their judgement is on character and even worse when it comes to incompetence ….They are so filled with hate and anger (against Republicans/Conservatives) they would rather cut their noses off to spite their faces and vote for a harbinger of incompetence and mismanagement like Corzine to run their state… dragging the rest of us innocents along with them… No wonder NJ was on the brink of bankrupsy until Christie came along, now the Liberals are mad at the “Parent” in charge…. NJ Liberal Morons…. Sheesh!

They Liberal Kool Aid guzzlers did the Same thing with Obama….dragging the rest of us innocents through the muck along with them…. Morons…

I am very sad to say that Corzine is from the town I live in. You would think that there would be a street or something named for a guy who grew up in a town of 10,000 and became a governor of a state. Hell, we have a Sandy Duncan Drive and she just mentioned our town in her television show many years ago.

He is a joke, and if it didn’t involve peoples’ retirement accounts, it would be funny to see him squirm – IF they ever get around to charging him with some crimes.