Picking Through Financial Wreckage

Des Moines Register:

Real estate brokers, bargain seekers and asset liquidators sifted through the wreckage of a ruined life last week in Cedar Falls as they wandered among the former belongings of disgraced business leader Russell Wasendorf.
The founder of Peregrine Financial Group had an affinity for the best of everything. Now the homes, businesses and luxurious furnishings of his former empire are being sold off to raise money for his nearly 25,000 victims.
The property and buildings already are for sale. Everything else — from his 4,000-bottle wine collection to his autographed Lance Armstrong jersey — is scheduled for auction Dec. 5.
The asset sales are part of a $60 billion liquidation industry that’s cleaning up the debris of the global economic slowdown. Hard times have helped expose both marginal businesses and financial scams. Wasendorf has pleaded guilty of stealing as much as $200 million from customer funds at his Peregrine Financial Group futures brokerage.
“He was a generous guy; the only problem was that it wasn’t his money,” bail bondsman David Lederman, 42, of Waterloo said Tuesday as he marveled at the Wasendorf estate’s enormous pool house. “This is a nice piece of property. The crazy part is that the pool is probably worth more than the entire house.”

I'm guessing the value of the autographed Lance Armstrong jersey has decreased significantly in the past couple of weeks.  That would fit nicely in my collection beside the Bengals helmet autographed by Chris Henry.