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Dee8go · #1 11-08-2011, 09:39 AM

Here's another ********* who has screwed the American public and will probably get away with it.

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- After a violent car crash that left him with 18 broken bones and half his blood in 2007, Jon Corzine learned an important lesson: Don’t take unnecessary risks.

And no, we’re not talking about trading in derivatives or wearing your seat belt. We’re talking about taking care of No. 1.

Reuters
Jon Corzine
That’s why as regulators attend to a post-mortem of MF Global Holdings Inc. MFGLQ -24.25% , Corzine has lawyered up to deal with his belly-up firm. Corzine is not only the No. 1, he’s the 1% that have a bulls-eye painted on their backs.

If you’re from the New York area you might remember Corzine’s series of public-service statements he filmed after the accident.

“I’m New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine, and I should be dead,” he said.

Many MF Global investors and employees and the kids down at Zuccotti Park might have some mixed feelings about that statement. And why shouldn’t they? Corzine ratcheted up leverage at the firm, failed to heed warnings and put the firm at the precipice. A couple of downgrades from the ratings firms were all that was needed to nudge MF Global off the bankruptcy cliff.

Corzine declined to comment, but you can imagine his defense. MF Global wasn’t a bank. Depositors were never at risk. Moreover, even in its implosion, MF Global never threatened to create an imbalance in the market. Sure, stocks swooned on the day MF failed, but fears about Europe were in the headlines, too.

Click to Play
Banks differ on Europe risk exposures reporting
Is any amount of disclosure enough when it comes to a financial firm's exposure to Europe? How Jefferies Group fares in coming days may help answer that, David Reilly reports on Markets Hub. Photo: AP.

Of course, even if this were true, none of this absolves Corzine from the failures of his reign at MF Global. Moreover, it underscores just how the system remains tilted to the most untouchable of the 1%, the CEOs of big brokerages and banks.

For one, there is Corzine’s ability to distance himself from the mess. He resigned late last week and expressed sorrow (though he never said he was sorry) over MF’s collapse. Corzine said he would not seek severance from the firm.

It all sounds very noble until one realizes that Corzine was stepping away from the mess. He less likely to be challenged in the bankruptcy proceedings by investors and employees who are looking to scrape for the money owed to them.

For another, Corzine almost surely will walk away from the mess without threat of prosecution either criminally or civilly. If operators such as Richard Fuld, the former head of Lehman Brothers, and Kerry Killinger, the former head of Washington Mutual Inc., can get away without giving back their compensation, why would anyone in Washington push Corzine into court?

Moreover, Corzine’s connections to Washington’s top levels — from former high-level Goldman Sachs Group Inc. GS +0.79% bankers now serving in government to President Barack Obama himself — suggest that any deceptive statements and missing client money probably won’t be cause for concern in the Corzine camp.