Saturday, February 25, 2012

MF Global Victims - Give Preet Bharara a Call

If a parking lot thru sloppy accounting accidentally thought 38,000 cars were theirs and sold em, the DA would file charges. I guarantee it. There'd be prompt action. The DA would act because he would fear the public reaction he'd get if he didn't act.

After the MF Global debacle, with 38,000 victims, and $1.2B missing, no one has filed any criminal charges. No one has been locked up. No one has been indicted.

This seems wrong, doesn't it?

If, like me, you think some law man needs to get off his duff and take some action, here are some things you can do.

The law man who should be indicting some MF Global folks is the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Preet Bharara. This man must have a great public relations firm. Time magazine ran very positive articles on Bharara on 2/1/2012, 2/6/2012, 2/13/2012, and 3/10/2012. Egad! Time even put him on the cover of the 2/13/2012 issue.

I'm waitin' for Time to run an article about how he hasn't indicted anyone in the MF Global debacle. In the meantime...

Here's what you can do: Give his office a call right now. His official phone number is
(212)637-2200
You don't need any special skills. Just be polite and sincere. Here are some things you can say:
"I'm a victim of MF Global."
"I think there need to be some indictments."
"38,000 customers are victims."
"Who will you hold accountable?"
"Please help us."

If you're embarrassed to call, you can fax. His official fax number is
(212)637-2685

You could fax him a nice letter, explaining why he should act. Handwritten or typed. Short or long. Doesn't matter. You could include a copy of your last MF Global statement, so he can see your dollars and cents are real.

If you don't want to fax, you can send him a letter the old fashioned way. Here's his official address
Preet Bharara, US Attorney
One St. Andrews Plaza
New York, NY 10007

You might think that it is undignified to apply pressure to law enforcement folks, especially someone at such a high level in the administration. The sad truth is that the DOJ (of which Bharara is a part) is very political. Political issues determine which cases have priority. There is nothing more important to politicians than the will of the people. It helps when you make them know that people are interested in a case.

Because of the political nature of the DOJ, it is also valuable to recruit members of congress, especially democratic members, to apply pressure on your behalf, so call and write these guys too. If you don't have time to write a lot of letters, just fax your congressman a copy of the letter you send to Bharara. Just mark it "FYI". You could also send a copy of the same letter to the NY Times.

Pick up the phone now and dial.

PS: If you'd like to contact congress, you can find contact info for the important committee members in my MF Global Victim Activists Guide.

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