Business

Insider Corzine’s chutzpah

If anyone has ever wondered what creates the distrust in Washington and our country’s financial system, it is cases like MF Global.

At MFG, $1.6 billion of customer money went missing last November and is still missing, affecting 25,000-plus customers.

Fast-forward to late last week, when reports citing “people involved in the case” indicated that it’s now unlikely that there will be any criminal charges against MF Global CEO Jon Corzine as a result of the scandal. There’s even a convenient rumor of Corzine’s comeback — as an investment manager, no less.

What chutzpah! So $1.6 billion disappears on your watch and you want other people to give you money to manage?

When two reports with this level of outrageousness are leaked on the same day, one should be rightfully suspicious.

It’s clearly being done to deflect and divert the legitimate outrage. There is a next-to-zero chance Corzine will ever run money or “trade” again; only a fool would entrust funds and endorse this level of fiduciary irresponsibility.

Clearly, nothing taps the anger of the average American more than politically connected insiders gaming the system and getting away with it. No matter if one is a former US Senator, a former New Jersey governor, a former front-runner to replace Timothy Geithner as Treasury secretary or, ironically, a past co-CEO of Goldman.

It goes even deeper than that, though. The Government Accountability Institute reports that Corzine’s/MFG’s law firm was Eric Holder’s old firm before he became President Obama’s attorney general.

MF Global owed the firm $114,275.55 for services rendered prior to its Oct. 31 bankruptcy filing. And lest we forget, Gary Gensler, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission chief, also worked at Goldman with Corzine.

So as you can see this guy was — is — connected.