![]() The beginning of the end for PFG came the wake of a multitude of regulatory scandals caused by PFG traders, which resluted in an agreement to open the company books for a detailed audit to ensure future compliance. However regulators met with strong resistance to the new audit technology, which resulted in many firms such as FGBest being carefully scrutinized for their refusal to participate in the new verification clearinghouse ( 2012). The changes included a newly developed electronic clearinghouse which allowed for an immediate and simultaneous verification of all account balances, discrepancies in those balances would quickly reveal PFG’s falsified bank statements. The path toward uncovering the fraud began in 2009, in response to a string of high profile financial scandals new advancements in audit technology were being developed that would soon to plug loopholes that had made accurate auditing a challenge. However it could be argued that prosecutors trumped his death sentence with their alternative: 50 years of maximum security prison, $215 million in restitution and a life sentence of isolation, shame and regret. In a melodramatic closing, the suicide note announced that Wasendorf had punished himself far harsher than he would suffer at the hands of prosecutors by sentencing himself to death (Reinitz. Wasendorf claimed that regulatory failures for verifying bank records allowed him to create false bank records for over 20 years, forgeries that were being mailed back to auditors from a fake PO Box he had created in bank’s name. The note also belittled the regulatory agencies for their incompetence at detecting fraud and alleged that they were so consumed with punishing honest mistakes made by traders that they could never find deliberate fraud that they were assigned to be investigating. ![]() The letter apologized to his family for disgracing the family name however, the note justified his fraud by directing blame toward vindictive regulators who he had long believed were jealous of his success and unnecessarily burdened his firm with regulatory expenses that made the success of honest small firms cost-prohibitive. The suicide note contained a detailed confession for defrauding PFGBest investors for the past 20 years. Had Wasendorf used today’s mobile browser technology and Googled “suicide by car exhaust”, Google would have guided him to choose the much deadlier 1959 Thunderbird over the 2001 Chevrolet Cavalier Convertible from his car collection. 2012).ĭespite Wasendorf’s brilliance in brokering futures trades, he had much to learn about the genius of clean air automotive emissions controls. Todays automobiles generate only trace levels of poisonous carbon monoxide, so instead of death by poison gas, Wasendorf was merely exposed to about 8 hours of low oxygen levels and made a complete recovery. Paramedics removed Wasendorf unconscious but alive, the suicide note was passed onto the regulatory office of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (Touryalai. However, his suicide attempt failed, the following morning a passerby noticed the car running and called police. ![]() On JCEO and founder of Peregrin Financial Group, Ralph Wasendorf drafted a detailed suicide note, rigged a hose from his car exhaust through a window, started the engine, and drifted off to sleep.
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