Bankruptcy, Investment Firms | featured news

The amount of customer funds missing from accounts at the bankrupt brokerage MF Global “may be as much as $1.2 billion or more,” the trustee overseeing the firm’s liquidation said Monday. That would be roughly double previous estimates of about $600 million. In a statement, trustee James W. Giddens said the estimate is preliminary and “may well change.”

A U.S. futures regulator said on Tuesday that activity leading up to the bankruptcy of brokerage MF Global appears to be "either nefarious or illegal."

The 1,066-member workforce of MF Global Holdings Ltd's brokerage has been terminated, the latest aftershock to the parent company's $41 billion collapse nearly two weeks ago.

The discovery comes after days of intensifying regulatory scrutiny at MF Global, which filed for bankruptcy on Monday.

He set out to create a mini-Goldman Sachs. In the end, he built a mini-Lehman Brothers. Former New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine's resignation Friday from the securities firm he led capped a week of high drama and swift failure. Less than a week ago, Corzine had expected to sell his firm, MF Global. By week's end, it had collapsed into bankruptcy. And Corzine had hired a criminal defense lawyer in the face of an investigation of the firm by the FBI and federal prosecutors.