Dominique de Kevelioc de Bailleul – Trends Research Institute founder and director, Gerald Celente, told Russia Today (RT) in a Nov. 14 interview that the fall of MF Global took his futures account down with it. Celente cannot access his account nor get answers to his inquiries from representatives of Lind-Waldock, the firm with whom he opened an account.
“They took my money; they took out of my account . . . it wasn’t being traded by anyone . . . this is like having money in a bank account,” Celente forcefully said. “They took my money out of my account, six figures, and they have it. They closed out two of my positions, and I cannot get any answers, and I can’t get my money.”
So far, Celente is the highest profile victim of politico operative John Corzine’s MF Global. The firm filed for bankruptcy protection in October following credit downgrades of its debt and a collapse in its stock price weeks prior to the filing event.
Within days of the news of MF Global’s demise, it was learned that in addition to the bankruptcy, more than $600 million in 33,000 client accounts were unaccounted for, including Celente’s money, in an apparent case of MF Global’s ‘commingling’ of clients accounts with its corporate accounts.
Ironically, Celente, who advocates holding physical gold as protection from a collapsing financial system, uses a futures to buy paper gold, temporarily, with the intention of taking delivery of physical gold at the COMEX in the future, which in his case is the most active delivery month of December. Physical gold is the safest form (only form) of true ownership, according to Celente. He stands as the most recent high-profile proof of the risks involved with entrusting savings and investment capital in today’s financial system.
In his tell-it-like-it-is manner of speech, Celente told viewers of RT that for a long time he has noticed an ‘elite’ cabal of criminal bankers and mafia-like political cohorts steadily taking over America’s financial, political, and regulatory institutions—and the freezing of his futures account as well as the lack of communication about the disposition of his money while MF Global’s bankruptcy proceeds is the latest example of a small group of corrupt Americans receiving special treatment at the expense of the nation’s decent and law-abiding citizenry. In fact, specific laws and regulatory oversight bodies regarding client accounts were crafted and instituted to prevent a Celente case from ever happening.
“And you watch this guy, Corzine. You know, Lauren, the word ‘justice’? They spell it wrong; it’s spelled, J-U-S-T-U-S—just us,” Celente added to his usual colorful dialogue. “This clown walks . . . he’s raising what, having dinners for Obama at $35,000 a pop. This guy’s sitting at the casino, making bets 36-to-1. You go down one dollar, but you bet 36? And he’s cleaned out and ruined a lot of people.
“So maybe the name MF, I’m thinking the first word is ‘mother’ and we can put the other word in there, if you use your imagination, because that’s what they’re doing to everybody.”
Celente’s difficulties underscores a case repeatedly made, by Goldmoney’s James Turk, Eric Sprott of Sprott Asset Management and a number of other hard-money advocates, for owning physical gold.
The MF Global bankruptcy and well-publicized malfeasance of fiduciary duty in the aftermath will most likely serve as an example to investors who are not yet truly sold on the idea of holding some gold as protection from the global financial meltdown—as it continues unabated since 2008.
The UK Telegraph ran an article about the problem clients of MF Global now face retrieving their money, further promulgating Messrs. Turk and Sprott contentions to a wider general audience.
“What worries me is that if the SAR [Special Administration Regulations] does not lead to client money being rapidly distributed people will be quicker to withdraw their money from other firms at the first sign of trouble,” Paul Kavanagh, a partner at Killik & Co, told the Telegraph.
Killik refers to an old fashioned bank run, a situation that easily could become the additional catalyst for the anticipated Lehman-like event in Europe—or maybe the catalyst for another U.S. surprise. No one really knows from where the next bankruptcy will come and to where it might lead.
It’s been more than two weeks since the MF Global bankruptcy, and there is no word yet regarding a resolution to clients’ ‘allocated’ accounts at the firm.