Peregrine Financial Group's chief executive used client funds to pay for a $4.5 million life insurance policy, said a lawyer for the failed brokerage's bankruptcy trustee, Reuters reported yesterday. Peregrine, commonly known as PFGBest, filed for bankruptcy protection on July 10, one day after CEO Russell Wasendorf attempted suicide and left a note describing how he had stolen more than $100 million from customers' accounts over nearly 20 years. Trustee Ira Bodenstein, whose job is to oversee the liquidation of Peregrine and return money to customers and creditors, has seen checks confirming Wasendorf used some customer money from accounts that were supposed to be segregated from the futures broker's funds to pay for his life insurance, the trustee's lawyer Robert Fishman told reporters after a court hearing.
