Refco: a potted history

2005Gerard Sillam, described in his press statement as a "French business contributor", alleged that Refco had "filed with SEC [Securities and Exchange Commission] an IPO project without mentioning a major pending claim of $1.02bn filed in the New York State Supreme Court and several civil and criminal proceedings in Paris, with claims of approximately €90m".Refco bought equity derivatives broker Greenwich as well as Cargill Investor Services (CIS), the latter for an upfront payment of $208m. Under terms of the CIS agreement, Refco were to pay between $67m and $192m extra, dependent upon the future performance of the acquired firm. In March, Refco paid £14.8m for ISV EasyScreen. The two firms had entered into a £2m joint venture in 2001, which gave the brokerage a custom-built mechanism for internalising order flow. 2004Two Refco Hong Kong futures brokers were penalised by Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) for breaching regulations dealing...