Grassley: CFTC Chairman Should Recuse Himself on MF Global Holdings Matters
M E M O R A N D U M
To: Reporters and Editors
Re: U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, MF Global Holdings Ltd
Da: Friday, Nov. 4, 2011
Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa made the following comment on whether Gary Gensler, the chairman of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, should recuse himself from matters related to MF Global Holdings Ltd., the fund that was run by former New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine, in light of media reports outlining close, longstanding ties between Gensler and Corzine. Media reports say Gensler and Corzine “rose through the ranks” together at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. for 18 years and collaborated on Capitol Hill when Corzine was a senator and Gensler was a staffer.
“The chairman of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission is supposed to look out for investors. MF Global’s case is a big collapse that requires a lot of work from the commission to try to figure out what went wrong and minimize further investor losses if possible. It’s hard to see how the commission chairman could be completely objective in looking out for wronged investors when he has such strong ties to the principal of the failed firm. It seems recusal would be the best outcome for investors.”
