Of all the July 4ths that Bennett hates, he’ll hate July 4, 2008, the most. While the nation rejoiced on this day, he had already been sentenced to 16 years in Federal prison the day before... all thanks to his Dark Knight acts at Refco
“I knew failing to disclose these filings was wrong. I know I was wrong. I deeply regret it,” is how Phillip R. Bennett pleaded guilty, with eyes full of tears, before the US District Judge Naomi
Reice Buchwald, on February 15, 2008. And what was his crime? Well he literally killed a company!!! Bennett, the former CEO of Refco Inc., a New York-based leading financial services company, earned fame having made millions for thousands of his clients (even US Senator Hillary Clinton was one!). But there was the dark side to this knight... he mismanaged Refco’s clients’ equity and disguised $430 million of bad debts. During its heydays, Refco was known as the largest non-bank US futures commission merchant of commodities and futures. The company was founded in 1969 by Lt. Thomas Dittmer and his stepfather Ray Freidman (who also had a criminal record!) as ‘Ray Freidman & Co.’ in Chicago. It was eventually relocated to New York. Its base had swelled to 200,000 customers and $4 billion in assets by October 2005. Then doomsday occurred. Many experts claim that Refco’s flameout was one of the most spectacular financial failures in US history amid civil and criminal investigations. Between its IPO in August 2005 and its October 18, 2005 bankruptcy filing, more than $1 billion in investor capital evaporated from Refco’s coffers. Beat this, it took just four days for Refco to transform from being the world’s largest commodities and futures brokerage to a company worth nothing, making it the fastest crash of a publicly listed company ever!...Continue
Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).
Read also :-
“I knew failing to disclose these filings was wrong. I know I was wrong. I deeply regret it,” is how Phillip R. Bennett pleaded guilty, with eyes full of tears, before the US District Judge Naomi
Reice Buchwald, on February 15, 2008. And what was his crime? Well he literally killed a company!!! Bennett, the former CEO of Refco Inc., a New York-based leading financial services company, earned fame having made millions for thousands of his clients (even US Senator Hillary Clinton was one!). But there was the dark side to this knight... he mismanaged Refco’s clients’ equity and disguised $430 million of bad debts. During its heydays, Refco was known as the largest non-bank US futures commission merchant of commodities and futures. The company was founded in 1969 by Lt. Thomas Dittmer and his stepfather Ray Freidman (who also had a criminal record!) as ‘Ray Freidman & Co.’ in Chicago. It was eventually relocated to New York. Its base had swelled to 200,000 customers and $4 billion in assets by October 2005. Then doomsday occurred. Many experts claim that Refco’s flameout was one of the most spectacular financial failures in US history amid civil and criminal investigations. Between its IPO in August 2005 and its October 18, 2005 bankruptcy filing, more than $1 billion in investor capital evaporated from Refco’s coffers. Beat this, it took just four days for Refco to transform from being the world’s largest commodities and futures brokerage to a company worth nothing, making it the fastest crash of a publicly listed company ever!...ContinueSource : IIPM Editorial, 2008
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).
Read also :-
