by DeWayne Reeves
James Koutoulas Co-Founder / Commodity Customers Coalition
Friday July 13, 2012 @ 12:45 EDT, we will conduct a live question and answer session with James Koutoulas on the Christian Financial Radio Network. Go to http://cfrn.net to listen to the live audio stream and participate in the discussion.
Koutoulas, who runs commodity trading advisory firm Typhon Capital Management in Chicago, saw about 50 of his clients affected in the aftermath of the discovery of the fund shortfall — when MF Global Trustee James Giddens immediately froze all customer accounts and no one one was allowed to make withdrawals. Altogether, Koutoulas' customers had roughly $55 million held up at MF Global.
Oct. 31, 2011 was the day MF Global filed for bankruptcy, and the day something unprecedented happened in the futures industry—segregated customer funds at a futures commissions merchant had vanished and no one knew what had happened to them. Koutoulas now represents 8,000 former customers of MF Global as he advocates for a full return of all customer segregated funds.
Fortune magaginze has dubbed him - The Boy Wonder of the MF Global Nightmare
The U.S. futures industry reeled again this week as Iowa-based broker PFGBest collapsed after regulators accused it of misappropriating customer funds for more than two years, dealing a new blow to trader trust just months after MF Global's demise.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), along with other industry regulators had given PFG a clean bill of health as recently as January. Now the same regulatory agencies allege that the firm's regulated Peregrine Financial Group (PFG) unit and its owner, defrauded customers and lied to regulators in order to hide a shortfall that now exceeds $200 million.
"The whereabouts of the funds is currently unknown," the CFTC said in a complaint against PFG and its founder and chairman, Russell R. Wasendorf Sr., whose suicide attempt on Monday morning outside the firm's Cedar Falls, Iowa, offices appears to have precipitated the crisis.
Peregrine filed to liquidate under Chapter 7 of the U.S. bankruptcy code Tuesday evening with between $500 million and $1 billion of assets, between $100 million and $500 million of liabilities, and between 10,000 and 25,000 creditors. The CFTC complaint, which relies on many of the details released on Monday by the NFA, said the bank account that PFG reported was holding $225 million in 1,845 customer accounts actually contained only $5 million.
The CCC is not affiliated with any single corporate entity. Koutoulas states:
"We have come together to fill the leadership void that the commodities industry sorely lacked, and to provide all customers of US Commodity Markets a voice."
If you or someone you know was a customer of MF Global, PFG Best, or if you are a commodities trader with a different firm, we encourage you to tune in for this informative interview.
Date: Friday July 13, 3012
Time: 12:45 PM EDT
Q&A: http://cfrn.net
Discussed on today's broadcast: (SPY)(DIA)(GLD)(FB)(TSLA)
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