Mf Global Missing Money | featured news

Investigators are expected to conclude that sloppiness, not criminal intent, was the main driver behind the disappearance of customer money.

Former New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine could face a lawsuit from the trustee trying to recover $1.6 billion in customer money from the collapse of the brokerage MF Global.

J.P. Morgan Chase has returned roughly $600 million that was ensnared at the bank when MF Global collapsed in October.

J.P. Morgan agreed to hand over $168 million to a bankruptcy trustee representing customers of MF Global. The trustee, James Giddens, said in a statement Friday that the money paid "represents the proceeds of excess collateral" that the New York bank "held" when MF Global tumbled into bankruptcy Oct. 31.

Lawmakers asked Christine Serwinski, the chief financial officer for the firm’s North America operations, why she didn’t tell regulators about her concerns before the firm’s bankruptcy.

As MF Global was in the final throes of a fatal cash crisis, CEO Jon Corzine gave "direct instructions" to transfer $200 million of customer funds to cover an overdraft, according to a congressional memo released Friday.

Investigators have determined what happened to nearly all of the customer money that disappeared from MF Global around the time of its bankruptcy last Oct. 31, but have not publicly disclosed their progress, fearing that doing so might cripple efforts to recover the cash and pursue potential wrongdoing, people briefed on the investigation said.

U.S. lawmakers investigating the collapse of futures brokerage MF Global showed frustration with the firm's leaders about what happened to hundreds of millions of dollars in missing customer funds.

A lawyer for James W. Giddens, the trustee, said the investigation into MF Global had shown suspicious transfers from the so-called segregated accounts that still appear to have a substantial shortfall.

Jon Corzine told a congressional panel Thursday that he never intended to break rules requiring failed securities firm MF Global to safeguard client funds. He also said he doesn't know what happened to an estimated $1.2 billion that went missing.