Gyroscopic Investing

“Jon Corzine’s New Hedge Fund Eyes Event Wagers Triggered by Trump”

See:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... d-by-trump

Somehow, the return of Jon Corzine to Wall Street escaped my attention. Not only did Corzine not got to jail for his role in the collapse of MF Global back in 2011, he could not explain to a Congressional committee how more than $1 billion of his clients’ brokerage accounts disappeared after being illegally taken to meet margin calls on his firm’s proprietary trades just before it suddenly filed for bankruptcy.

In 2017, Corzine subsequently paid a $5 million penalty and received a lifetime ban from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission in a negotiated settlement. In return, he did avoid doing actual jail time for his crimes.

The Bloomberg news article also notes that Corzine’s “new fund can only invest a limited amount of client capital in futures.”

Seriously, folks, I could not make this stuff up if I tried!

My favorite quote from 2011:

"I simply do not know where the money is," Mr. Corzine said.

Yeah, it was a great one-liner... But not the only one!

Wait, so he stole a billion dollars, repaid five million dollars, and everything is okay now?

Xan,

It only gets wilder:

Mr. Corzine is a former co-chair and long associate of Goldman Sachs, Wall Street's most storied investment bank. It simply is not credible to argue that the man did not know what he was doing.

Consider also that, given his net worth has been estimated at $300 million, the fine-- which look large on the face of it-- amounted to less than a two percent slap on the wrist.

When I was at Stanford circa 1995 everyone shamed the kid who wanted to work for Goldman. They all wanted to be doctors, to help people...not for the money. heh

Back when Corzine was an ex-officio member of the board of trustees at Princeton, all the kids wanted to be hot-shot investment bankers or hedge fund managers.

I don't even bother reading these things anymore. There is minimizing of fines and penalties the larger the company or the higher profile the person, almost universally. Especially when the crime is financial.

When the crime is sexual, it is a bit more of a level playing field, it seems.

What can be done?

What can be done?

Personally:
-Practice institutional diversification. It is still hard to believe that some people invested ALL of their money with Bernie Madoff.

Collectively:
-Support lawmakers who promise to turn Jon Corzine into Bernie Madoff's bunkmate-- for life.

See Jason Zweig's "Ten Years On, Loss of Trust Still Hangs Over Wall Street," in today's Wall Street Journal.

Zweig reflects on the legacies of the 2008 financial crisis. Jon Corzine is not mentioned by name, but he is clearly part of the problem, not the solution.

https://howmuch.net/articles/the-30-big ... ortune-500

You dont give away a billion a year without getting something in return...

Not very hard to connect the dots, is it?