Peregrine Financial files for liquidation Peregrine Financial Group has filed for liquidation in a US bankruptcy court in Chicago, just one day after the chief executive of the futures broker apparently attempted suicide. The bankruptcy petition was signed by Russell Wasendorf Jr, chief operating officer and son of Peregrine's chief executive and founder. An accompanying board resolution said that Russell Wasendorf Sr gave his son power of attorney to act for him and on his behalf in the event of his incapacitation on July 3, just six days before police reported that he tried to take his own life. The resolution, dated July 9, said the company's board consisted of Mr Wasendorf Sr and Mr Wasendorf Jr. The decision to liquidate, it said, followed Mr Wasendorf Sr's incapacitation on Monday which led to a special meeting of the board. Earlier on Tuesday, regulators charged Peregrine and Mr Wasendorf Sr, who remains in a coma in an Iowa hospital, with running a $200m fraud after a check of the company's accounts revealed a dramatic shortfall in its segregated customer accounts. Peregrine, which did business as PFGBest, and Mr Wasendorf Sr committed fraud by misappropriating and failing to segregate customer funds and making false statements to the commission, the lawsuit said. The Federal Bureau of Investigation has joined the investigation. The civil complaint, brought by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, said Peregrine kept only $5.1m in a customer account the company falsely said held more than $220m. It added that shortfalls had dated from at least February 2010. The CFTC's civil lawsuit marks a new black eye for the futures industry as it attempts to rehabilitate its reputation after the failure of broker MF Global last year. In the Chapter 7 filing, Peregrine said it had assets of between $500m and $1bn and liabilities in the range of $100m to $500m. The company had between 10,000 and 25,000 creditors. The liquidation filing follows a chain of events that began Monday morning when police responded to a report that Mr Wasendorf Sr had been found after a possible suicide attempt outside Peregrine's headquarters in Iowa. A police report seen by the Financial Times on Tuesday said that a note was found at the scene that indicated "possible discrepancies with accounts at Peregrine Financial Group." After the suicide attempt, the National Futures Association, a self-regulatory body, received information that Mr Wasendorf "may have falsified certain bank records," according to the CFTC.