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The Eerie Parts Of Corzine's Testimony

This article is more than 10 years old.

Twice, he said it in slightly quavering tones;  Jon Corzine insisted it was "not my intent" to use segregated customer accounts in the activities of MF Global or any other customer of the firm.  But,  he can't know for certain that the taking of the segregated accounts might have taken place without his intent-- but by mistake or by the confusion and chaos of those last tragic moments.

Indeed, in his prepared testimony he seem to believe there are customer accounts that must be segregated and customer accounts that don't require segregation. I don't get that.

Then, there's the damning issue of  the leverage-- reduced from 37 times capital to 30 times-- a dangerous procedure for building any sort of a  lasting financial empire. Only, when the fat was in the fire-- and bankruptcy was threatening, did Corzine try to sell the FCM commodities operation. If achieved, he testified, the leverage would have dropped to the high teens.

The point being that he was fine with 30 times until it became an emergency. He should well have known better. The mystery of the $1.2 billion vanishing should have been resolved in the last 5 weeks if  the Trustee, the CME, the CFTC, the banks had all been cooperating under fire alarm pressure.

Business Insider was right in mentioning the uncomfortable moment when Corzine was asked by the Committee chairman if he would  use his own fortune to make the farmers and the ranchers whole on their losses.  Aghast, he struggled through without promising a cent.  How the mighty have fallen again.