Ag Committee Presses Regulators on Collapse of PFGBest

July 25, 2012, the House Agriculture Committee held a public hearing to examine the collapse of Peregrine Financial Group, Inc., the LIBOR manipulation and receive an update on MF Global and Dodd-Frank implementation. PFGBest filed for bankruptcy shortly after regulators froze their operations through emergency enforcement actions. More than $200 million in customer funds are missing.

"Today's hearing was a critical step in understanding the facts surrounding PFGBest's bankruptcy and the failure of regulators to miss such an outright fraud. The clients of PFGBest and MF Global are our constituents and it remains my priority that they be made whole. They are farmers and ranchers who until recently have never had cause for concern in using the futures markets. They've never had to worry that the tools they use to manage risk would one day be doubted and the integrity of the futures markets be questioned," said Chairman Frank Lucas.

Written testimony provided by the witnesses is available at the links in pdf format below.

Panel I

• The Honorable Gary Gensler, Chairman, Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Washington, D.C.

Panel II

• Mr. Terrence Duffy, Executive Chairman and President, CME Group, Inc., Chicago, Illinois
• Mr. Daniel J. Roth, President and Chief Executive Officer, National Futures Association, Chicago, Illinois
• The Honorable Walter L. Lukken, President and Chief Executive Officer, Futures Industry Association, Washington, D.C.
• Mr. John Heck, Senior Vice President, The Scoular Company, Omaha, Nebraska; on behalf of the National Grain and Feed Association
• The Honorable Charles F. Conner, President and Chief Executive Officer, National Council of Farmer Cooperatives, Washington, D.C.
• Mr. Paul McElroy, Chief Financial Officer, JEA, Jacksonville, Florida; on behalf of the American Public Power Association