Forum Post: MF Global workers sue Corzine, Other Executives
Posted 12 years ago on Dec. 2, 2011, 8:16 p.m. EST by MonetizingDiscontent
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MF Global workers sue Corzine, other execs
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/mf-global-workers-sue-corzine-113337599.html
-Dec 6, 2011-
(Reuters) - Past and present MF Global employees sued ex-CEO Jon Corzine and other executives over alleged misrepresentations they say destroyed the value of the company's stock.
Two former employees are seeking class-action status on behalf of any current or former MF Global worker who bought company shares through stock purchase plans since mid-2010.
Corzine, the former New Jersey governor and Goldman Sachs chief who resigned as MF Global's CEO on November 4, is one of 12 defendants in the lawsuit, filed on Monday in federal court in Manhattan.
Former head of retail Randy MacDonald, Chief Operating Officer Bradley Abelow and Chief Financial Officer Henri Steenkamp were also named in the filing.
MF Global, a commodities broker that had been transitioning to a full-fledged investment bank under Corzine, filed for bankruptcy on October 31 after losing on about $6.3 billion worth of bets on European debt.
The employees say Corzine and fellow executives "did not disclose the crippling effect" of those bets. Steenkamp said in a May conference call that the positions carried only "minimal" risk, according to the complaint.
MF Global Customer: My ENTIRE Account Is Missing
By Jonathan Stempel
-Dec 2, 2011-
(Reuters) - As investigators search for an estimated $1.2 billion missing from MF Global customer accounts, one customer says his entire account has vanished and blames the trustee liquidating the firm.
An Illinois-based futures fund on Friday said its more than $50 million account with the broker-dealer unit of MF Global Holdings Ltd (MFGLQ.PK) http://www.reuters.com/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=MFGLQ.PK ....is missing, and asked a federal bankruptcy judge to order the trustee to find it.
Highridge Futures Fund LLP said the trustee James Giddens has refused to help locate its account with MF Global Inc, even after transferring some 38,000 other accounts and giving customers access to some of their collateral.
Once run by former New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine, MF Global filed for bankruptcy on October 31 after a bet on European sovereign debt worried markets, causing a liquidity shortfall.
The Highridge fund said Giddens, CME Group Inc's (CME.O) http://www.reuters.com/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=CME.O ...Chicago Mercantile Exchange and regulators have told it nothing about the status of its account, which held commodity positions and cash. It also said it had been told twice that the account was being transferred, but the transfer never occurred.
"This account is nowhere to be found," said the fund, overseen by Lombard, Illinois-based Highridge Trading Co.
The trustee's office has been in contact with Highridge, and will try to resolve the matter without the need for a court ruling, said Kent Jarrell, a spokesman for Giddens.
Giddens this week asked U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Martin Glenn, who oversees MF Global's bankruptcy, to allow the distribution of as much as $2.1 billion to former MF Global commodities customers, roughly doubling the total payout to $4.1 billion.
He said the payout should restore at least two-thirds of U.S.-based property to former customers of that unit, where funds were frozen because of the bankruptcy.
On Friday, the House Agriculture Committee in Congress voted to subpoena Corzine to testify about MF Global's collapse. A spokesman and a lawyer for Corzine each declined immediate comment.
Investigators believe MF Global may have diverted the missing customer money for its own needs. The amount missing is unclear, but a lawyer for Giddens has estimated the sum could be $1.2 billion or more.
The case is In re MF Global Inc, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Southern District of New York, No. 11-2790.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Additional reporting by Alexandra Alper and Charles Abbott in Washington, D.C.; Editing by Gary Hill)
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MF Customer: $50Million Commodity Account Gone
-Dec 2, 2011-
Highridge Futures Fund LP, a customer of the MF Global Inc. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/quote?ticker=MFGLQ:US ...brokerage, said its $50 million account with the defunct company is “missing.”
James Giddens, the trustee liquidating the brokerage, has “failed and refused” to provide any information about the whereabouts of the account, Highridge said in a filing today in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan: http://topics.bloomberg.com/u.s.-bankruptcy-court/ ...Highridge asked the judge handling the case to order Giddens to locate and transfer the account, containing mostly cash and also unsettled commodity positions.
Two Goldman squids trading inside information again. Don't miss the Irishman in the video in Tiabbi's blog about Corzine and Gensler.
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/jon-corzines-relationship-with-cftc-chair-gary-gensler-probed-20111207
Corzine and Obama are close pals.
"Mistakes were made". Lol!
::::::::::::MF Global Fallout Delays U.S. Farm Seed, Land Deals::::::::::::
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/12/06/us-mfglobal-agriculture-idUSTRE7B509620111206
-Tue Dec 6, 2011-
(By Tom Polansek) With $200,000 of his money yet to be returned from the accounts of MF Global, his former broker, the 49-year-old farmer has missed a $5,000 discount for early buyers, and is watching friends and neighbors snap up the best varieties of seeds.
In the latest sign of how MF Global's failure is continuing to cascade across the commodity industry, Tofteland and other farmers who have yet to recover more than a third of their money from the bankrupt broker now find themselves in a cash crunch that risks rippling far beyond the futures market.
Some farmers have had to postpone purchases of land or equipment. Tofteland still expects to sow his 1,000 acres in the southwest corner of the state, but may have to borrow money to do so.
Still, the delay in returning billions of dollars in customer funds more than a month after MF Global filed for bankruptcy is starting to affect actual decisions on the farm. This threatens to cloud the outlook for U.S. crops, warn farmers who have been ratcheting up pressure on the bankruptcy trustee to move faster to disperse any cash he secures....
(((Continue Reading this article Here)))
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/12/06/us-mfglobal-agriculture-idUSTRE7B509620111206
::::::::::::Bankrupt MF Global Sticks Tech Vendors with Unpaid Bills::::::::::::
Technology vendors are lining up behind the attorneys and accountants to collect unpaid invoices from MF Global's bankruptcy process.
By Ivy Schmerken
http://www.wallstreetandtech.com/trading-technology/232200547
-December 01, 2011-
The rapid collapse of MF Global has impacted many of the industry's technology providers that have been left with unpaid invoices and broken contracts.
Sources tell Wall Street & Technology that a number of financial technology firms are owed money by the defunct futures and commodities broker, which filed for bankruptcy on Oct. 31, 2011.
A list of MF Global Holding's unsecured creditors and shareholders includes Caplin Systems Ltd http://www.caplin.com/ ...owed $427,520; Headstrong http://www.headstrong.com/ ...Services, an IT consultant, owed $3.9 million, Bloomberg Finance, LP, owed $276,064, according to a story in Bloomberg News, which cites the company's bankruptcy filing and related court papers filed in the Manhattan bankruptcy court.
In fact, Caplin Systems and Elliot Management Corporation, a bill processing provider, were also named to an unsecured creditor's committee of the collapsed U.S. futures brokerage, alongside JP Morgan, Bank of America and Wilmington Trust Co., Reuters reports on Nov. 7.
Financial technology vendors who provided trading systems and other services to MF Global are lining up behind the accountants, lawyers and bondholders of the collapsed futures and commodities brokerage firm, once led by Jon Corzine, the former CEO of Goldman Sachs and ex-governor of New Jersey.
"Caplin is one of the companies that has suffered from MF Global," said an industry source, who requested anonymity. Caplin, a London-based provider of single dealer platforms, was working on a big project for MF Global in Chicago, notes the source familiar with the situation.
According to the industry source, it costs several hundred thousand dollars a year to license Caplin's single dealer platform, which enables companies to deliver real-time information over the web. Companies like Caplin may have hired staff to work on the project in anticipation of revenues, suggests the source.
A spokeswoman for Caplin Systems in London declined to comment. "At this time, we are not giving interviews," said the spokeswoman, who released a prepared media statement from Paul Caplin, the company's CEO and founder. "MF Global has been a very good customer of Caplin's and we're saddened by the company's demise. We are fortunate that Caplin's business is growing strongly at present, so for us our business continues as usual."
The firm's web site lists MF Global as a client, and states the broker selected Caplin's technology for its multi-asset eCommerce offering. Other clients of Caplin include Barclays Capital, Citi, Credit Agricole and Fannie Mae.
The demise of MF Global could potentially impact other technology vendors due to lost consulting dollars, product development dollars and licensing fees that could amount to significant losses, says the industry source.
Earlier this week, Patsystems http://www.patsystems.com/ ...a provider of screen-based dealing systems for futures and options markets said it also is suffering a financial loss by the collapse of MF Global, its largest client. Patsystems said the brokerage firm owed it money -- 900,000 pounds sterling, or approximately $1.4 million -- at the point of its collapse.
Following a preliminary assessment of the financial damage from MF Global, Patsystems expects revenues and profits will be lower by approximately 500,000 pounds, or about $779,000.
The shortfall in revenues from MF Global has led Patsystems to consider a possible takeover offer from ION Trading, a technology firm that currently owns 29 percent of the company and is its largest shareholder. ION has valued each share in Patsystems at 14 pence or 20 cents per share, according to Monday's statement. Based on its market cap of 29 million pounds, ION is valuing the software firm at $45 million. ION has until Dec. 26th to announce a firm intention to make a formal offer.
::::::::::::View this article Here::::::::::::
http://www.wallstreetandtech.com/trading-technology/232200547
I think MF Global is proof that we have accomplished nothing in terms of regulations. I realize there's obvious criminality at work here that needs to be dealt with but MF Global operating at 44X leverage set themselves up for trouble. Thier trades if smaller would have had a lot more room to bounce around without causing a crisis. It's the leverage everyone is allowed to use that puts America's wealth at risk.