As the Wall Street company run by Democrat Jon Corzine crumbles, it appears $900 million is missing. Now the Federal Bureau of Investigations and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission are opening inquiries.
MF Global Holdings Ltd’s collapse is the latest embarrassment for Corzine, who served as one of the Democratic Party’s top political leaders as a U.S. Senator and New Jersey governor. Only this last spring he was on the short list to replace President Obama’s Treasury Secretary, Tim Geithner.
Corzine was the co-author of the controversial Oxley-Sarbanes financial laws. He also was an early advocate for universal health insurance and supported the new difficult financial regulations passed under the Dodd-Frank law. The financial services law, passed last year, is so complex the Obama administration has delayed its implementation
Now many MF Global customers worry as the company faces insolvency due to Corzine’s personal decision to bet 6.2 billion of the company’s own money on European sovereign debt. Before bankruptcy court yesterday the company listed its debt at $39 billion and assets to be $41 billion. However, at least $900 million is unaccounted for.
The FBI is reportedly investigating to see if any customer money is missing and who may have taken it. The CFCT, a regulator of MF Global also is preparing to determine where the customer funds are. Corzine was one of the chief deal makers at MF Global and he is reported to have personally undertaken many of the European trades himself.
The collapse of MF Holdings is causing chaos among many companies and brokerage firms that depended on the company for commodity and futures trading. Many traders cannot get their funds out of MF Holdings and the discovery that $900 million is missing will force them to wait longer.
The demise of MF Holdings is a black eye for Corzine and perhaps for Democrats politicians associated with him.
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