Bankruptcy Judge Carol A. Doyle ruled that Peregrine Financial Group Inc.'s liquidating trustee can consider bulk offers for futures client accounts from other commodities firms, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. While Judge Doyle agreed with Trustee Ira Bodenstein's position that futures client funds may most efficiently be distributed through the sale of accounts to another firm, she deferred ruling on his request for approval of a proposed interim distribution of $123 million. The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission on Sept. 9 objected to the payout proposal under which the trustee would hold back about $58 million in futures client funds as a hedge against firm account records being falsified or incorrect. Peregrine filed for bankruptcy court liquidation on July 10 after a National Futures Association audit revealed that about $200 million in client funds reportedly on deposit with the firm’s bank were unaccounted for.
