Corzine: I don't KNOW, KNOW, KNOW

The media has predictably leapt to former MF Global head John Corzine’s defense following the revelation that $200 million dollars in customer funds was stolen, “per JC’s direct instructions,” by regurgitating the talking point that Corzine was unaware of the fact that the money was taken from clients.

A memo released by the House Financial Services subcommittee contradicts Corzine’s claim, made under oath before Congress, in which the former New Jersey governor claimed, “I did not instruct anyone to lend customer funds to anyone.”

$200 million dollars in customer funds, part of a $1.6 billion in client money that disappeared, was sent to MF Global’s account with JP Morgan by direct order of Corzine, the email reveals.

“The memo released Friday details an email by Edith O’Brien, an assistant treasurer at MF Global, saying the transfer last October 28 “per JC’s direct instructions” would cover an overdraft in the London account of JPMorgan Chase. “JC” stood for Corzine,” reports Politico.

The fact that the email proves Corzine lied under oath, as well as violating securities law, was almost instantaneously met with an aggressive establishment media effort to defend Corzine, with both the New York Times and Time Magazine claiming Corzine did not know the money was from customer accounts and that the O’Brien email “was not a smoking gun”.

To claim that an internal MF Global email which directly implicates Corzine as the instigator behind a transparent attempt to steal customer funds is “not a smoking gun” is a manifestly ludicrous assertion to make.

In attempting to absolve Corzine of blame, the establishment media is trying to confuse the whole story by reporting that Corzine “was told during the brokerage firm’s final day of business that a crucial transfer of $175 million came from the firm’s own money.”

Indeed, the $175 million transfer did come from MF Global’s own account, but only after that account had been filled with $200 million in stolen customer funds, which as the O’Brien email makes clear, was by direct order of Corzine.

The NY Times report acknowledges that Corzine could have been told “the origins of the money during a phone call or in person,” but still tries to make the argument that, “A transfer of money from a customer account does not in and of itself constitute wrongdoing,” as if this portion of vanished $1.6 billion dollars could have been an innocent and routine banking procedure.

It’s most likely that the second email in which Corzine was supposedly told that the $175 wire to JP Morgan did not come from customer accounts (even though it did) was deliberately manufactured to provide Corzine with a false alibi so he could carry on with his ridiculous “it wasn’t me” act.

The notion that Corzine, as the head of MF Global, would not know that money was being transferred (stolen) from customers in the days before the breakup of the company, is about as credible as Corzine’s performance in front of Congress, when his feeble attempt to absolve himself of blame by engaging in convoluted linguistic gymnastics was plain to see.