An aggregation of today’s news on the PFGBest collapse. See original coverage of the story here and all our commentary and coverage here.Peregrine Files to Liquidate After CFTC Sues
By Andrew Harris and Matthew Leising – Bloomberg
Peregrine Financial Group Inc. filed to liquidate in bankruptcy after the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission sued the brokerage alleging a $200 million “shortfall” in client funds. Peregrine listed assets of more than $500 million and debt of more than $100 million in a Chapter 7 petition filed yesterday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Chicago. Separately, U.S. District Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer issued an order freezing Peregrine’s assets at the CFTC’s request, saying it appeared there was “good cause” to believe the firm and its founder, Russell Wasendorf Sr., violated the federal Commodity Exchange Act.
http://jlne.ws/M2u8oM

Chief of troubled Cedar Falls brokerage left suicide note; 911 recording released
Cedar Valley Business
The founder of Peregrine Financial Group was breathing but incoherent when his employees found him near death on Monday morning.
http://jlne.ws/M1F9qk

PFGBest Insisted It Was Nothing Like MF Global, Months Before Collapsing Like MF Global
Mark Gongloff – Huffington Post
Are you getting collapsed brokerage firm PFGBest confused with collapsed brokerage firm MF Global? It’s understandable! They’re both commodity brokerage firms with a lot of consonants in their names. They both collapsed suddenly, making a bunch of customer money vanish.
http://jlne.ws/L7g0WQ

PFGBest Customers’ Trades Liquidated Tuesday – Sources
By JACOB BUNGE and BRETT PHILBIN – Dow Jones
Customers of embattled futures and currency brokerage PFGBest saw trades held with the firm liquidated Tuesday. All open trading positions held by clients of PFGBest were to be liquidated by Jefferies Group Inc. (JEF), which clears transactions for the struggling company, customers were told in a notice early Tuesday, a copy of which was reviewed by Dow Jones Newswires.
http://jlne.ws/M2u8F5

CFTC sues Peregrine for fraud
AP
Federal regulators have filed civil fraud charges against Peregrine Financial Group, accusing the firm and its owner of misusing customer funds and failing to keep them separate from the firm’s money as required by law.
http://jlne.ws/M2uawT

Peregrine Financial CEO Left Suicide Note, ‘Caused Alarm’
By DANIEL WAGNER and JIM SUHR – AP
Employees of an Iowa-based brokerage firm that has been unable to account for $220 million in customer money found their boss in his car at company headquarters, with a tube connecting the vehicle’s tailpipe to the interior, authorities said Tuesday.
http://jlne.ws/OZjlwp

PFGBest’s Wasendorf Was a Mouthpiece for Futures Industry
Wall Street Journal Blogs
PFGBest’s Russell Wasendorf Sr. was no wallflower in the futures industry. He was actively quoted as an expert, wrote letters and ran a trade publications.
http://jlne.ws/M2u883

Gensler: `Vigorous’ CFTC Enforcement on Peregrine
Bloomberg
July 10 — Gary Gensler, chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, talks with Bloomberg’s Peter Cook about accounting irregularities at Peregrine Financial Group and questions about the CFTC’s ability to regulate. He speaks on Bloomberg Television’s “Lunch Money.”
http://jlne.ws/M2u8Fd

[Video] CFTC Can’t Handle Peregrine `Mess,’ Brandt Says
Bloomberg
Peter Brandt, a commodities trader and chief executive officer of Factor LLC, discusses the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s complaint filed against Peregrine Financial Group Inc. for an alleged customer fund shortfall.
http://jlne.ws/M2u8Fg

Is ‘Inept’ CFTC “The Get-Away Driver” For PFG?
Zero Hedge
I expect to lose money because of the complete incompetence of the Federal regulators is how Factor LLC’s Peter Brandt describes the farce that has rapidly become bankrutpcy for PFG Best to Bloomberg TV today. As we noted earlier , the recent and clearly total ineptitude of the CFTC in identifying falsehoods is incredible – and twice within one year on a massive scale.
http://jlne.ws/M2u8Fj

Attain: ‘We were let down by regulators’
By Becky Yerak – Chicago Tribune
About 2:30 p.m. Monday, Chicago-based Attain Capital started getting calls asking if it had heard about the suicide attempt of Russell Wasendorf Sr., the owner of Peregrine Financial in Cedar Falls, Iowa. Attain Capital had money with Wasendorf’s futures trading firm. So did its clients. At 3:09 p.m., Attain got an email stating that Wasendorf had indeed attempted to take his own life and that Peregrine’s PFGBest was being investigated for “accounting irregularities.” “As the story has unfolded, the details have been at turns nauseating and infuriating, as a web of deceit unravels before our eyes,” Attain said Tuesday in a blog post titled, “PFGBest: Broken Promises, Shattered Trust.”
http://jlne.ws/M2uaNe

Peregrine clients angry about alleged shortfall
By Lynne Marek – Crain’s
Chicago commodity trading firms with client accounts at Peregrine Financial Group Inc. reacted with frustration and anger this week on news of a possible shortfall in customer funds at the futures commission merchant and brokerage, which filed for bankruptcy Tuesday evening.
http://jlne.ws/M2uaNf

PFGBest: The Corporate History
By David Benoit – WSJ
PFGBest has become the latest trading name to blow up in allegedly spectacular fashion. On Monday, the National Futures Association, the futures industry’s self-regulatory body, took emergency action as the brokerage company froze accounts.
http://jlne.ws/Miximx