By Patrick Clark 9/25/12 4:21pm

Legal Briefs

spongebob

Peregrine’s Wasendorf Not Sure He Can Deliver Missing SpongeBob Coins From Jail Cell

As previously noted, there’s been nary a dull moment in Peregrine Financial Group founder Russell Wasendorf Sr. In July, Mr. Wasendorf attempted suicide just before regulators unraveled his scheme to embezzle millions of dollars from customers of his Iowa-based futures brokerage.

How did he do it? With a scanner, a post office box and Adobe Photoshop.

To what end? Something about Romanian real estate investments.

How much did he take? Prosecutors say more than $200 million, though Mr. Wasendorf’s public defender disputes that number.

What’s this have to do with SpongeBob? Read More

By Patrick Clark 9/11/12 5:04pm

Missing

Russell Wasendorf Sr.

Peregrine Financial Group Regulator Kicks in Fine Paid By Iowa Broker to Bankruptcy Trustee (Update)

There are lost assets and found assets in the bankruptcy of Peregrine Financial Group, the Iowa-based futures dealer than folded in July after the firm’s founder said in a note left before his attempted suicide that he’d used a color printer to hide that his company’s bank account was missing some $200 million in client funds.

Lost assets included 304 silver coins depicting characters from the children’s TV show SpongeBob SquarePants, valued at about $20,000; Found assets included a baseball glove signed by former New York Yankees manager Joe Torre and baseball hall-of-famer Johnny Bench, all of which may sounds strange if you haven’t been following the saga, which has included tales of Peregrine founder Russell Wasendorf’s shotgun wedding, wizardry with Adobe Photoshop and catastrophic experience in Romanian real estate. Read More

By Pamela Weiler Grayson 4/19/04 12:00am

Mother Love: How I Became A N.Y.C. MILF

One night, my husband came home from a dinner with some newly acquired friends and announced that he had learned a new word-or acronym, to be precise. The word-which, it turns out, was popularized by the movie American Pie -was “MILF,” and it stands for “Mother I’d Like to Fuck.”

It was a new word Read More