明富环球破产案乱象愈演愈烈

乔恩•科尔津的人脉

    11月4日，乔恩•科尔津在外界的质疑声中宣布辞去明富环球金融集团首席执行官的职务。科尔津的背景深厚，曾经是高盛集团（Goldman Sachs）的首席执行官，作为民主党人担任过新泽西州州长，从政道路历经坎坷。美国商品期货交易委员会（Commodity Futures Trading Commission）主席加利•根斯勒是乔恩•科尔津在高盛集团的同事，而该委员会正是调查明富环球金融集团的机构之一。因此，加利•根斯勒要求回避调查工作。商品期货交易委员会委员吉尔•萨默斯接替了他的位置。吉尔•萨默斯是该委员会的资深委员，这次任命表明华盛顿无意打压金融市场，因为萨默斯曾经在芝加哥商品交易所任职，被外界看做期货业的老朋友，同时和明富环球金融集团存在利害冲突。

    事实证明，芝加哥商品交易所的行为也没有受到审查，据一位了解明富环球金融集团丑闻的交易所知情人透露，在明富环球金融集团申请破产前不久，芝加哥商品交易所已经发现了危险信号，但是没有按照惯例向美国商品期货交易委员会披露。这种做法违反了芝加哥商品交易所作为自我监管机构的规定。这位纽约交易员表示：“这种做法荒谬可笑，一个自我监管机构实际上是没有监管的机构。这就是公开交易的内幕，真是令人毛骨悚然。”芝加哥商品交易所方面则发布公告，称这些报道充斥着“不实说法”。

    与此同时，得“感谢”美国商品期货交易委员会，正是这个期货市场的重要监督机构放松了明富环球金融集团在未经客户许可的情况下动用客户资金的限制规定——这种做法是明富环球金融集团和其他公司的特权，也是他们多年积极游说的成果。上周末，有报道指出，针对明富环球金融集团的调查显示，该集团可能在申请破产前违反规定，动用客户资金偿还债务，同时用来支持该集团持有的63亿美元欧洲国家主权债券，最终才导致全面崩溃。

    这意味着这笔资金不仅是下落不明，而且可能一去不返。许多大型交易商认为，明富环球金融集团的资金谜团最终会梳理清楚，但是这对小投资者无济于事，他们还要继续遭受损失。

    大太平洋财富管理公司（Great Pacific Wealth Management）打算帮助客户维护权益，该公司经理西恩•麦吉利夫雷称：“我们预计会有些波折，但是这件事从一开始就不顺利。破产丑闻让我们感到失望，也让成千上万的期货投资者和他们的券商感到失望。我每天都在联系破产受托人。有一次我接通了语音信箱，但是通常电话都无人接听。”

    译者:凌云

Corzine connection

    The MF Global implosion is also fraught with questions about the recently defrocked Jon Corzine, who resigned as MF Global's chief executive earlier this month. Corzine's background as a co-chairman at Goldman Sachs before he became Democratic New Jersey governor presents certain difficulties. For one, Gary Gensler, the head of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission – one of a handful of agencies investigating the MF Global disaster – previously worked with Corzine at Goldman Sachs (GS). As a result, he had to recuse himself from leading the probe. CFTC commissioner Jill Sommers has taken his place. While Sommers is a senior commissioner, this appointment shows Washington's continued disinterest in mounting a real crackdown, as Sommers is widely seen as friend to the futures industry and – in keeping with MF Global's conflict-of-interest quotient – a former employee of the CME.

    The CME's own actions, it turns out, also are not above scrutiny, as a source privy to a non-public review of the MF Global scandal at the exchange reveals that red flags cropped up shortly before MF Global's collapse, but were not disclosed to the CFTC as they should have been. This would be a violation of the rules applying to the CME as a self-regulatory organization. "It's absurd that a self-regulating body can exist when it's a non-regulating body," the New York trader says. "This is a public exchange. Everyone is terrified." For its part, the CME has issued a statement saying that such reports have been filled with "inaccuracies."

    Meanwhile, the CFTC, which is supposed to be the central watchdog agency of the futures market, can be thanked for relaxing the rules restricting how firms like MF Global use customer funds when the customer's not using it – a privilege for which MF Global, among others, furiously lobbied for years. Late last week, reports trickled in from the MF Global probe that the firm may have unlawfully relaxed those rules ahead of its bankruptcy, using client funds to pay off its debts and bolstering the $6.3 billion bet on sovereign European debt that ultimately overturned the brokerage.

    All of which means the money might not just be missing, it could be gone for good. While many large-sized traders believe that the tangles in the MF Global web will eventually be sorted out, that doesn't help the smaller investors who continue to suffer.

    "We expected some hiccups, but it's been botched from the get-go," says Sean McGillivray of Great Pacific Wealth Management, an introducing brokerage that's attempting to advocate for its clients. "It's shut us down and it's effectively shut down tens of thousands of futures investors and their supporting brokerages. I try to reach the trustee every day. Once I got voicemail. But usually it rings off the hook."