-- Price manipulation. In 1983, Blair testified he believed Refco and [Thomas Dittmer] were manipulating cattle prices during the time he advised Clinton. He said Refco brokers and customers, trading together, "helped" move cattle prices, in part by controlling delivery of live cattle to market. "They wanted to see the market go up or see it go down. There wasn't any money to be made if it didn't move," Blair said.

Refco and Dittmer have denied any manipulation. But they, along with Bone, were disciplined in 1979 by the exchange for repeatedly violating exchange rules and reporting requirements while trading cattle in 1978 and 1979. The exchange levied a $250,000 fine against Refco, then the largest penalty ever imposed on a broker. Bone agreed to a three-year suspension of his right to trade on the exchange.

Blair now denies favoritism by the Springdale brokers. But David Jeffrey, a dentist who traded in Springdale during the same time as Clinton, raised the issue in a suit against Refco, and in a complaint he filed with the exchange against Dittmer, Bone and Jack Musteen, a Springdale broker.