Russell Wasendorf (original) (raw)

Russell R. Wasendorf Sr. (born 1948) is the former chairman and chief executive officer of Peregrine Financial Group, also known as PFGBEST, a futures commission merchant (commonly known as a commodity broker) that filed for bankruptcy protection in Chicago in July 2012. He was arrested in July 2012 following a suicide attempt. In September he pleaded guilty to embezzling $215.5 million from more than 13,000 customers over the course of 20 years. On January 31, 2013, he received a 50-year sentence for fraud, effectively a life sentence.