I Guess Being Connected Pays Off

It is being reported that Jon Corzine will not face criminal charges in the collapse of MF Global:

The complaint says that the firm filed false segregated funds reports with the CFTC on Friday, October 28, but it doesn’t say who signed off on the reports. Early in that day, Corzine told O’Brien to pay off $134 million in overdrafts to JPMorgan, MF Global’s lender. O’Brien made the payment by transferring money from customer accounts at JPMorgan to a proprietary account at JPMorgan, and then transferring the money from the proprietary account to pay JPMorgan. The Chief Risk Officer at JPMorgan told Corzine that this had happened, and asked for assurances that it was legal. O’Brien responded to an inquiry by Corzine by showing the second transaction. ¶64(k). Corzine didn’t ask where the money came from and didn’t do anything else about it. The Complaint says that:

Corzine also failed to halt multiple subsequent transfers of funds from customer segregated accounts that were made for proprietary purposes. Corzine failed to implement any controls or take any steps to ensure that customer segregated funds were not and would not be unlawfully used. ¶64q

And then there’s this:

Corzine knew on Friday morning that MF Global had transferred $175 million to MFGUK even though he thought MF Global had immediate access to only $82 million in proprietary cash. He further learned from JPM shortly before 2:00 p.m. ET on Friday that the funds were used to pay the overdraft referred to in paragraph 64 above and were in fact transferred from a customer segregated account.

I’m sure there is some reasonable explanation as to why responsible officials do not think any crime was committed. Perhaps I have misread the facts, or maybe whatever happened doesn’t constitute a crime, or something else. Somebody who knows should come forward and provide that explanation. It isn’t enough to send a couple of “federal investigators” out to leak this story.

Where are all the "very serious people" worried about the rule of law?  They stole from segregated funds and filed false documents denying it.  But, since they were paying off bankers, that's all right.  It's alright to fuck retail customers and retirees, but don't ever fuck one of the big banks.  That's a crime you'll get punished for.  We are so fucked.  We only seem to have a government which exists to protect the interests of giant corporations.  Fuck everybody else.