heyyy, what a surprise!
chalk this up to still another FAIL by the SEC.
Here's the "fun" part:
One of the notes, which was a general statement describing Mr. Wasendorf's alleged fraud and signed by him, says regulators first examined Peregrine's use of client funds as far back as 1993, triggering Mr. Wasendorf to start his alleged fraud. Deceiving the regulators was "relatively simple," said the statement
"Deceiving the regulators was relatively simple". !!!
Three Stooges comparisons, anyone?
"Most of the misappropriated funds went to maintain the increasing levels of Regulatory Capital to keep [Peregrine] in business and to pay business [losses]," said the signed statement. It said the funds also were used to build Peregrine's $18 million headquarters in Cedar Falls, Iowa, and to "pay Fines and Fees charged by the regulators."
Authorities, citing Mr. Wasendorf's statements, have said he falsified bank statements to regulators to cover up the shortfall in client funds. Peregrine's collapse has triggered renewed scrutiny of the oversight of the futures industry, which has been hit by other recent scandals, including last year's collapse of MF Global Holdings Ltd.
"I'm astounded that this could go on for nearly two decades and yet nobody checked to see where these bank statements were going, who they were going to, if they were real or not," Sen. Tom Harkin (D., Iowa) said of the Peregrine case in a Senate Agriculture Committee hearing Tuesday.
FRAUD.
$18 Mil for a nice new Corporate Headquarters! Sweeeeeeet.
Senator Harkin: NOBODY is minding the Store; you get that, right?
Dear SEC & Sen Harkin: how many more of these fraudsters are out there running amok? hundreds? thousands??
http://online.wsj.com/...