MF Global: How Does $1.2 Billion Dollars Freakin' "Vaporize"?

Ah, the innocent days when Jon Corzine's MF Global first went under, and "missing monies" we being tallied in the hundreds of millions...

Soon to be tabled in billions.  But we're not there yet.  We are here:

As the sprawling probe that includes regulators, criminal and congressional investigators, and court-appointed trustees grinds on, the findings so far suggest that a “significant amount” of the money could have “vaporized” as a result of chaotic trading at MF Global during the week before the company’s Oct. 31 bankruptcy filing, said a person close to the investigation.

Many officials now believe certain employees at MF Global dipped into the “customer segregated account” that the New York company was supposed to keep separate from its own assets—and then used the money to meet demands for more collateral or to unfreeze assets at banks and other counterparties as they grew more concerned about their financial exposure to MF Global.

OK - first? How the f*ck does customer money vaporize? Tyler Durden goes off:

i) the "vaporization" is merely the phrase that so called investigators use to avoid the far more troubling sounding "stolen" as it would imply guilt, something which the former NJ governor and Goldman CEO (and not to mention JP Morgan which most likely was on the receiving end of the $1.2 billion + transaction) will, under guidance from counsel, sternly disagree with, or ii) the capital markets are such an unprecedented and manipulated fraud, that nobody has any clue at any moment, where any client money is...So when someone asks what happened to stock market volume, and to investor confidence in the "stock market" feel free to use just that phrase: "it vaporized."

Funny - isn't one of the most ironclad laws of physics that of the conservation of matter, which states that matter can not be created or destroyed, but only can be changed in form? No wonder Jon Corzine was so full of himself - apparently, he was able to overwrite the laws of the universe with a single trade.

But is seems as if the money did merely change form. And that nobody has the will to chase it:

As money poured out of MF Global, much of it likely passed through J.P. Morgan Chase and other banks where the securities firm had accounts, as well as trade-clearing partners such as Depository Trust & Clearing Corp. and LCH.Clearnet Group Ltd., people familiar with the matter said.

Those companies have denied being knowingly in possession of any missing MF Global money, and any efforts to make them fill the hole would face daunting hurdles....

I am sure this is of great consolation to the small investors who had handed their life savings over to MF Global in the hope it would be cared for honestly. And whatever happened to "Yes, We Can"? I suppose when we are investigating the economic rape and pillage waged by a friend of Barack Obama's, the tagline becomes, "Oh No, We Can't"!

And speaking of vaporizing:

Jon Corzine, former governor and former financial wizard, has his penthouse in Hoboken up for sale at 11 percent less than he paid for it. Bloomberg reports it comes with one parking space and a $1,700 monthly maintenance fee. And only $38,003 in taxes on what he bought for $3.26 million in ’08. Hoboken is an Abbott district so people across the state pay for the schools.

Sounds like someone is in anticipation of upcoming legal bills...

I've begged the Republican party to make this a campaign issue - Corzine was a huge fundraiser for Barack Obama, and Biden has bragged about Corzine being the go-to guy when it came to designing the stimulus. But no. We'll argue instead about building Moon Base Alpha, and who served who kosher meals, while the criminals get off scott-free...