喬恩?科爾津的人脈

????11月4日，喬恩?科爾津在外界的質疑聲中宣布辭去明富環球金融集團首席執行官的職務。科爾津的背景深厚，曾經是高盛集團（Goldman Sachs）的首席執行官，作為民主黨人擔任過新澤西州州長，從政道路歷經坎坷。美國商品期貨交易委員會（Commodity Futures Trading Commission）主席加利?根斯勒是喬恩?科爾津在高盛集團的同事，而該委員會正是調查明富環球金融集團的機構之一。因此，加利?根斯勒要求回避調查工作。商品期貨交易委員會委員吉爾?薩默斯接替了他的位置。吉爾?薩默斯是該委員會的資深委員，這次任命表明華盛頓無意打壓金融市場，因為薩默斯曾經在芝加哥商品交易所任職，被外界看做期貨業的老朋友，同時和明富環球金融集團存在利害沖突。

????事實證明，芝加哥商品交易所的行為也沒有受到審查，據一位了解明富環球金融集團丑聞的交易所知情人透露，在明富環球金融集團申請破產前不久，芝加哥商品交易所已經發現了危險信號，但是沒有按照慣例向美國商品期貨交易委員會披露。這種做法違反了芝加哥商品交易所作為自我監管機構的規定。這位紐約交易員表示：“這種做法荒謬可笑，一個自我監管機構實際上是沒有監管的機構。這就是公開交易的內幕，真是令人毛骨悚然。”芝加哥商品交易所方面則發布公告，稱這些報道充斥著“不實說法”。

????與此同時，得“感謝”美國商品期貨交易委員會，正是這個期貨市場的重要監督機構放松了明富環球金融集團在未經客戶許可的情況下動用客戶資金的限制規定——這種做法是明富環球金融集團和其他公司的特權，也是他們多年積極游說的成果。上周末，有報道指出，針對明富環球金融集團的調查顯示，該集團可能在申請破產前違反規定，動用客戶資金償還債務，同時用來支持該集團持有的63億美元歐洲國家主權債券，最終才導致全面崩潰。

????這意味著這筆資金不僅是下落不明，而且可能一去不返。許多大型交易商認為，明富環球金融集團的資金謎團最終會梳理清楚，但是這對小投資者無濟于事，他們還要繼續遭受損失。

????大太平洋財富管理公司（Great Pacific Wealth Management）打算幫助客戶維護權益，該公司經理西恩?麥吉利夫雷稱：“我們預計會有些波折，但是這件事從一開始就不順利。破產丑聞讓我們感到失望，也讓成千上萬的期貨投資者和他們的券商感到失望。我每天都在聯系破產受托人。有一次我接通了語音信箱，但是通常電話都無人接聽。”

????譯者:凌云

Corzine connection

????The MF Global implosion is also fraught with questions about the recently defrocked Jon Corzine, who resigned as MF Global's chief executive earlier this month. Corzine's background as a co-chairman at Goldman Sachs before he became Democratic New Jersey governor presents certain difficulties. For one, Gary Gensler, the head of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission – one of a handful of agencies investigating the MF Global disaster – previously worked with Corzine at Goldman Sachs (GS). As a result, he had to recuse himself from leading the probe. CFTC commissioner Jill Sommers has taken his place. While Sommers is a senior commissioner, this appointment shows Washington's continued disinterest in mounting a real crackdown, as Sommers is widely seen as friend to the futures industry and – in keeping with MF Global's conflict-of-interest quotient – a former employee of the CME.

????The CME's own actions, it turns out, also are not above scrutiny, as a source privy to a non-public review of the MF Global scandal at the exchange reveals that red flags cropped up shortly before MF Global's collapse, but were not disclosed to the CFTC as they should have been. This would be a violation of the rules applying to the CME as a self-regulatory organization. "It's absurd that a self-regulating body can exist when it's a non-regulating body," the New York trader says. "This is a public exchange. Everyone is terrified." For its part, the CME has issued a statement saying that such reports have been filled with "inaccuracies."

????Meanwhile, the CFTC, which is supposed to be the central watchdog agency of the futures market, can be thanked for relaxing the rules restricting how firms like MF Global use customer funds when the customer's not using it – a privilege for which MF Global, among others, furiously lobbied for years. Late last week, reports trickled in from the MF Global probe that the firm may have unlawfully relaxed those rules ahead of its bankruptcy, using client funds to pay off its debts and bolstering the $6.3 billion bet on sovereign European debt that ultimately overturned the brokerage.

????All of which means the money might not just be missing, it could be gone for good. While many large-sized traders believe that the tangles in the MF Global web will eventually be sorted out, that doesn't help the smaller investors who continue to suffer.

????"We expected some hiccups, but it's been botched from the get-go," says Sean McGillivray of Great Pacific Wealth Management, an introducing brokerage that's attempting to advocate for its clients. "It's shut us down and it's effectively shut down tens of thousands of futures investors and their supporting brokerages. I try to reach the trustee every day. Once I got voicemail. But usually it rings off the hook."