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Peregrine Scion Aims to Clean the Slate

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Six months after Peregrine Financial Group Inc. collapsed in scandal, the son of its disgraced founder is struggling to move forward.

Russell Wasendorf Jr., who worked under his now-jailed father at Peregrine for 22 years, is fighting a lawsuit from a group of the firm's former clients, who say he missed signs of wrongdoing. At the same time, the 42-year-old is trying to figure out his own next move. He has relocated with his family from Peregrine's base of Cedar Falls, Iowa, to the Orlando, Fla., area, where he is looking for work as a consultant and considering moving to Australia for a fresh start, says his lawyer, Nick Iavarone.

Peregrine, a brokerage handling trades in futures and currencies, filed for bankruptcy protection July 10, a day after the elder Mr. Wasendorf, 64-year-old Russell Sr., attempted suicide and left a confession detailing how he siphoned tens of millions of dollars in investor money over nearly two decades. In September, Mr. Wasendorf Sr., who was Peregrine's chief executive, pleaded guilty to charges of mail fraud, embezzlement and lying to government regulators. He faces up to 50 years in prison, and is now in a Cedar Rapids jail awaiting sentencing. A public defender representing Mr. Wasendorf Sr. declined to comment.

> Read the full article on the Wall Street Journal website

 

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