Corzine Ordered $200M Moved to JPMorgan Days Before MF GlobalCollapsePhil Mattingly and Silla BrushBloombergMarch 23, 2012

Jon S. Corzine, MF GlobalHolding Ltd.’s chief executiveofficer, gave “directinstructions” to transfer $200million from a customer fundaccount to meet an overdraft ina brokerage account with JPMorgan Chase & Co.(JPM), according to a memowritten by congressionalinvestigators. Edith O’Brien, atreasurer for the firm, said in ane-mail quoted in the memo that the transfer was “Per JC’s direct instructions,” according to acopy of the memo obtained by Bloomberg News. The e-mail, dated Oct. 28, was sent three daysbefore the company collapsed, the memo says. The memo does not indicate whether that phrasewas the full text of the e-mail or an excerpt.

O’Brien’s internal e-mail was sent as the New York-based broker found intraday credit lineslimited by JPMorgan, the firm’s clearing bank as well as one of its custodian banks for segregatedcustomer funds, according to the memo, which was prepared for a March 28 House FinancialServices subcommittee hearing on the firm’s collapse. O’Brien is scheduled to testify at the

hearing after being subpoenaed this week.

“Over the course of that week, MFGlobal’s financial position deteriorated,but the firm represented to its regulatorsand self-regulatory organizations that itscustomers’ segregated funds were safe,”said the memo, written by FinancialServices Committee staff and sent tolawmakers.

Steven Goldberg, a spokesman forCorzine, said in a statement that Corzine“never gave any instruction to misuse

customer funds and never intended anyoneat MF Global to misuse customer funds.”

JPMorgan Overdraft

Vinay Mahajan, global treasurer of MFGlobal Holdings, wrote an e-mail on Oct.28 that said JPMorgan was “holding upvital business in the U.S. as a result” of theoverdrawn account, which had to be “fullyfunded ASAP,” according to the memo.

Barry Zubrow, JPMorgan’s chief riskofficer, called Corzine to seek assurances that the funds belonged to MF Global and notcustomers. JPMorgan drafted a letter to be signed by O’Brien to ensure that MF Global wascomplying with rules requiring customers’ collateral to be segregated. The letter was not returnedto JPMorgan, the memo said.

The money transferred came from a segregated customer account, according to congressionalinvestigators. Segregated accounts can include customer money and excess company funds.

Corzine Testimony

Corzine, 65, in testimony in front of the House panel in December, said he did not order anyimproper transfer of customer funds. Corzine also testified that he never intended a misuse ofcustomer funds at MF Global, and that he doesn’t know where client funds went.

“I never gave any instruction to misuse customer funds, I never intended anyone at MF Global tomisuse customer funds and I don’t believe that anything I said could reasonably have beeninterpreted as an instruction to misuse customer funds,” Corzine told lawmakers in December.

In his statement, Goldberg said Corzine did not specify which funds should be used to replenishthe JPMorgan account.

“He never directed Ms. O’Brien or anyone elseregarding which account should be used to curethe overdrafts, and he never directed that customerfunds should be used for that purpose,” Goldbergsaid. “Nor was he informed that customer fundshad been used for that purpose.”

$1.6-Billion Shortfall

The bankruptcy trustee overseeing the liquidationof the company’s brokerage subsidiary hasestimated a $1.6-billion shortfall between customerclaims and assets available.

Lawmakers andinvestigators from theCommodity Futures TradingCommission, Securities andExchange Commission andDepartment of Justicehave been reviewing eventsleading up to MF Global’sbankruptcy filing.Executives includingCorzine, a Democrat whoserved in the Senate beforehe was elected governor ofNew Jersey, gave testimony on the collapse at three congressional hearings last year.

“If client funds were transferred at his direction, it raises new questions,” Seth Berenzweig,managing partner at Berenzweig Leonard LLP, a law firm in McLean, Virginia, said in aninterview with Bloomberg Television. “This is a new storm cloud that is now headed for JonCorzine and it raises a lot of issues.”

Representative Randy Neugebauer, a Texas Republican and chairman of the Financial Servicesoversight and investigations subcommittee, is preparing a final report on his investigation into thefirm’s failure.

‘What Went Wrong’ “One of the goals of our investigation is not only to find out where the money went but to identifywhat went wrong in order to prevent this from happening again,” Neugebauer said in a statement. O’Brien is scheduled to appear before lawmakers with Christine Serwinski and Laurie Ferber,two other MF Global executives named by Corzine as being involved in the transaction, accordingto the memo. Henri Steenkamp , the firm’s chief financial officer, is also scheduled to testify, as isa representative from JPMorgan who has not yet been identified. MF Global and its brokeragesought Chapter 11 bankruptcy after a $6.3 billion bet on the bonds of some of Europe’s mostindebted nations prompted regulator concerns and a credit rating downgrade. Corzine quit MFGlobal Nov. 4. During his testimony, O’Brien was identified by Corzine as someone withknowledge of a transfer of funds from customer accounts before the firm sought bankruptcyprotection Oct. 31. Reid H. Weingarten, O’Brien’s lawyer, did not immediately respond to aphone call and e-mail seeking comment.

The memo’s account of the e-mail exchanges aligns with what Terrence Duffy, the executivechairman at CME Group Inc. (CME), told lawmakers during a December congressional hearing.Auditors at CME, which had authority to oversee MF Global, learned from an employee of thebrokerage that Corzine knew about the loans involving a European affiliate, Duffy told committeemembers.

You Read It Here First: Google’s‘Ambient Background’ Spy Tech

Paul Joseph WatsonPrison Planet.comFriday, March 23, 2012

‘Internet of things’ also a surveillance tool for authorities

Six years ago we warned readersthat Google was planning to usethe ambient background noise of aperson’s environment to spy ontheir activities in order to directtargeted advertising at themthrough technological devices.That has now come to fruitionwith the search engine giant filing apetition for “Advertising based onenvironmental conditions.”

“As that title implies, it’s not justbackground sounds that could be used to determine what adverts you seen on your mobile phone.The patent also describes using ‘temperature, humidity, light and air composition’ to producedtargeted adverts,” reports the Daily Mail.

In other words, Google is going to spy on your private conversations, music preferences, TVwatching habits, your choice of radio station, and whatever else is happening in your immediateenvironment, in order to build a psychological profile of your entire life.

The current patent relates to smart phones,but any Inter-connected device couldultimately be used for the same purpose.

Indeed, back in 2006 when we firstreported on the issue, Google was alreadyfinalizing plans to spy on an individual’sambient background environment by means ofthe microphone embedded in their personalcomputer.

In an article entitled Government, IndustryTo Use Computer Microphones To Spy On150 Million Americans, we reported howGoogle was “planning to use microphones in

the computers of an estimated 150 million-plusInternet active Americans to spy on theirlifestyle choices and build psychologicalprofiles which will be used for surveillance andminority report style invasive advertising anddata mining.”

Google’s efforts to spy on users via their cellphones is part of the wider move towards the‘Internet of things’ where virtually everytechnological appliance will be connected tothe web, opening a pandora’s box ofsurveillance opportunities.

Given that the private industry is alreadylicking its lips at the commercial prospects forthis technology, don’t be naive to think that the state isn’t too far behind.

CIA Director David Petraeus recently lauded this development as “transformational” because itwould open up a world of new opportunities for “clandestine tradecraft,” or in other words, makeit easier for intelligence agencies and governments to spy on you via your dishwasher.

Petraeus said the emergence of so-called ‘smart’ devices would “change our notions of secrecy,”allowing authorities to track individuals via their household appliances.

“Once upon a time, spies had to place a bug in your chandelier to hear your conversation. Withthe rise of the “smart home,” you’d be sending tagged, geolocated data that a spy agency canintercept in real time when you use the lighting app on your phone to adjust your living room’s

ambiance,” reports Wired.

“Items of interest will be located, identified,monitored, and remotely controlled throughtechnologies such as radio-frequencyidentification, sensor networks, tiny embeddedservers, and energy harvesters—all connectedto the next-generation Internet using abundant,low cost, and high-power computing—thelatter now going to cloud computing, in manyareas greater and greater supercomputing, and,ultimately, heading to quantum computing,”Petraeus told attendees at a meeting for theCIA’s venture capital firm In-Q-Tel.

New Ron Paul Ad Slams ‘Etch-a’Sketch’Idiocy

Steve WatsonPrisonplanet.comMarch 23, 2012

While the other candidates are playinggames, Paul is fighting to RestoreAmerica Now

For the past week the media, along withGOP presidential candidates Mitt Romney,Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich, as wellas the incumbent president, have fixated ona throw away remark about an ‘etch-a-sketch’ by a Romney communicationsadvisor.

That’s right, while the economy continuesits seemingly never ending spiral into ablack hole, while innocent people continueto be slaughtered needlessly in Afghanistan, while the rhetoric over attacking Iran increases, andwhile everyday Americans are stripped of more and more basic freedoms, the candidates haveheld up plastic toys and beat the American voting public around the head with a distinctly averagemetaphor.

Enough is enough for Ron Paul, who today released a new ad outlining the idiocy of the spectacleand how it reflects a wider picture where the presidential race is concerned.

The internet only ad uses cringeinducing clips of Santorum andGingrich brandishing Etch-a-Sketchesat campaign events, along withcorporate media hacks relentlesslyfilling their already comatizingschedules with fluff and nonsense aboutthe children’s game.

“Tired of the games?” the hollywoodtrailer style video asks, before toutingPaul as the only candidate who is“principled” and “consistent” with a“serious” plan to address the real

problems America faces. The ad “will bepushed to conservative email lists” andwebsites, according to a press releasefrom the Paul campaign.

“In the context of $15 trillion in federalgovernment debt, 12 million Americansjobless, and a country perpetually at warthere is zero justification for treating theelection as something to be toyed with.”the statement reads. “Conservatives andConstitutionalists have long beenconcerned about Mitt Romney’s track record of position changes and flip-flops, and his topadviser’s slip of the tongue only reinforces this suspicion,” said Ron Paul 2012 NationalCampaign Chairman Jesse Benton.

“It is equally off-putting to see Santorumand Gingrich react like carnival barkers,not the statesmen America sorely needs.But, none of this is surprising,” added Mr.Benton. “While the other candidates andthe political chattering class are obsessedwith horse-race politics and scoring publicrelations points, Dr. Paul stands alone inoffering real solutions to difficultproblems. He is the only candidate with a‘Plan to Restore America’ that cuts realspending and balances the budget in oneterm, ends the foreign wars and nation-building, cuts taxes and regulations tocreate jobs, and reigns in the Federal

Reserve,” the statement concludes.

Watch the Etch-a-Sketch ad below:

Ron Paul Ad: Etch A Sketchhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5pLrwINs1o