Peregrine CEO Signs Plea Deal [WSJ]
The chief executive of Peregrine Financial Group Inc. faces a maximum 50 years in prison under a plea agreement he signed with federal prosecutors. Under the agreement, Russell Wasendorf Sr. would plead guilty to charges of embezzlement and mail fraud alongside two counts of lying to government regulators, assistant U.S. attorneys said in a Cedar Rapids, Iowa, court Tuesday. The development comes more than two months after Mr. Wasendorf, founder of Peregrine and a business leader in his adopted hometown of Cedar Falls, attempted suicide outside his firm's headquarters, leaving behind what authorities called a confession detailing a yearslong scheme to defraud his investors. Civil charges were brought by regulators against Mr. Wasendorf and Peregrine, and the firm filed for bankruptcy July 10.
Senior MF Global Executive Said Corzine Knew About Misuse of Funds [FBN]
MF Global’s chief financial officer for North America, Christine Serwinski, told investigators that her boss, MF Global’s chief executive, Jon Corzine, was well aware of the use and possible misuse of the customer funds during the firm’s final days, and as a result, Corzine may end up in “jail,” these people add. Serwinski’s initial account of MF Global’s bankruptcy — and who might be to blame for the loss of $1.6 billion in customer funds — has yet to be disclosed, and could add a new dimension to the year-long federal investigation into the firm’s implosion. People with direct knowledge of what Serwinski said to investigators at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the CME Group say her statements appear to contradict those made by Corzine when he testified before Congress on the matter. Corzine has told Congressional panels investigating the matter that he never gave “instructions to misuse customer money.”
IRS: Agents Won't Be Enforcers of Obamacare Mandate [Reuters]
"IRS revenue agents will not be involved. There will not be audits," IRS Deputy Commissioner Steven Miller told a subcommittee of the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives. […] "In most cases, taxpayers will file their tax returns reporting their health insurance coverage, and-or making a payment, and there will be no need for further interactions with the IRS," Miller said.
What's Really Going on With Mitt Romney's $102 Million IRA [Atlantic]
Bill Cohan: "How can an individual retirement account that was limited by law to annual contributions of at most $30,000 grow into a fund with more than $100 million in it?"
Use of wrong delivery service results in dismissal of Tax Court petition [JofA]
FYI: "Taxpayers who chose the wrong type of FedEx delivery service did not get the benefit of the timely mailing/timely filing rule and as a result had their petition dismissed by the Tax Court (Scaggs, T.C. Memo. 2012-258)."
That’s All I Wrote [TFI]
Roddy Boyd hangs it up. For now.
Masked Streaker At Florida High School Football Game Gets Away [HP]
That's what students and faculty at Seminole High School in Seminole, Fla. have been asking since last Friday when a mysterious male with a red Spider-Man mask covering his face — and nothing else — ran naked onto the football field during the homecoming game. The male managed to bob and weave over the field, eluding security guards before jumping over two fences into a getaway car that drove up in the nick of time.
