Wall Street veteran Bradley Reifler was facing a stark choice: He could pay J.P. Morgan Chase Bank $2 million — money he says he doesn’t have — or go to jail. So Reifler, a former star trader at defunct commodities brokerage Refco Inc. and co-founder of the once-high-flying boutique brokerage Pali Capital, devised a third alternative: He filed for bankruptcy, according to a Wall Street Journal report today. Reifler, the grandson of Refco’s founder and the chief executive of the fledgling investment firm Forefront Capital, filed for chapter 7 protection on Friday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., listing assets of less than $50,000 and debts of more than $50 million, including a $23.3 million federal tax bill. The chapter 7 filing came days before U.S. District Court Judge Deborah Batts was set to consider whether Reifler should be held in civil contempt for failing to pay $2 million to JPMorgan Chase.
