Labels: Phillip Bennett, Refco

Labels: Joseph Collins, Mayer Brown Rowe and Maw, Refco, Stoneridge

Labels: BAWAG, Fraud, hedge fund, Refco

Labels: Joseph Collins, Phillip Bennett, Refco, Robert Trosten, Santo Maggio, Tone Grant

Labels: Bernstein Litowitz and Berger, class action, Phillip Bennett, Refco

Labels: Refco, Tone Grant

Labels: indictment, Joseph Collins, Mayer Brown Rowe and Maw, Refco

Labels: Mayer Brown Rowe and Maw, Refco

Labels: accounting fraud, boom, Race to the Bottom, Refco

Labels: Joseph Collins, Mayer Brown Rowe and Maw, Refco

Refco was the subject of 142 regulatory actions, the most of any futures trading outfit, according to a Bloomberg News analysis. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission came after it repeatedly, in some of its most prominent administrative cases of the 1980s and 1990s.

Fellow trading executives say Refco flouted industry standards like no other firm, tossing aside the rulebooks, taking on the diciest accounts and fighting back against regulators that tried to intervene.

Refco traces its origins to a one-time poultry wholesaler who served time in prison for selling substandard chickens to the military. Ray Friedman eventually won a pardon and with his stepson, Thomas Dittmer, opened the forerunner of Refco around 1969.

Labels: Fraud, indictment, money laundering, Phillip Bennett, Refco, Tone Grant

Labels: Bernstein Litowitz and Berger, Mayer Brown Rowe and Maw, Refco, Sean Coffey

Labels: Refco

Labels: Phillip Bennett, Refco

Labels: Refco

Labels: Refco

Ex-Refco Brokers Who Allegedly Poached Clients Settle Suit

Joseph Rebello
Dow Jones Newswires
March 22, 2006

A group of former Refco Inc. (RFXCQ) brokers moved to settle a lawsuit that accused them of defecting to a rival firm and poaching Refco's customers as the company was collapsing last October.

The eight brokers, all based in Chicago, pledged to return confidential documents allegedly taken from Refco's flagship business and to restrict the solicitation of former Refco customers, according to a proposed settlement filed with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan.

The lawsuit against the brokers was filed by the court-appointed administrator of Refco's former flagship unit, Refco LLC. It contended the brokers decamped with secret Refco customer lists just days after the company was engulfed by an accounting scandal.

Some of the brokers, the lawsuit said, then began calling Refco customers and urging them to transfer their business to the rival firm, Brewer Futures Group LLC. The pitch consisted of dire warnings about Refco's future, such as "Refco is going under," and "The level of service at Refco will decline. Service will be better at Brewer"...

Labels: Refco

Labels: Refco

Fund investors turn to private investigators

Risk Magazine
November 2005
By Jayne Jung

The recent to turn to private investigators to dig deeper into fund managers and to conduct due diligence

A spate of hedge fund-related scandals in recent months has increased concern among investors about fraud, and is prompting many to turn to private investigators to dig deeper into fund managers and to conduct due diligence. "What's going on with Bayou, Refco and Man Financial makes people nervous. And nervous people call investigators," says Michael Thomas, a partner at Caveat, a Washington DC-based corporate investigation firm...

...Caveat's Thomas says investors' focus is broader than the financial markets when making investment decisions, and with good reason. Something as simple as a driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs charge might cause investors to withdraw cash from a fund manager, he says. Investors don't want there to be any kind of question mark hanging over the integrity, or principles, of a manager.

Labels: Bayou Group, Kroll, Refco

Refco bondholders want access to data

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
December 6, 2005

WASHINGTON -- An investor group that holds $487.5 million in Refco Inc. bonds asked a judge to grant it direct access to secret information being gathered by a committee of creditors investigating the company's financial collapse.

The group said Refco's official creditors committee, which last week won the right to subpoena a broad array of Refco records, can't be relied upon to decide fairly which creditors should get access to that information. The creditors committee won that right only after promising to limit who gets access to the records...

But the bondholders contended the committee is "hopelessly conflicted" about pursuing the divergent interests of Refco's creditors. Under the circumstances, they said in court papers late Monday, the bondholders can't be sure they'll be kept informed about the investigation. "Any disconnect in receiving information, even for a short period of time, could have serious consequences," they said...

Labels: Refco