MF Global Clients May Never See $1.2 Billion Again
News reports this morning are indicating that investigators are not likely to be able to track down what happened to nearly $1.2 billion in client funds at the bankrupt MF Global financial firm. They characterize the missing money as having been vaporized.
Sorry, but that’s the wrong terms. It was misappropriated; not vaporized.
And that means that the money was stolen from client accounts by individuals within the company.
Theft means that a grand jury should be convened to bring charges against the responsible parties - and that means anyone with a fiduciary responsibility to the clients.
Jon Corzine had previously retained counsel in expectation of such an event.
MF Global has made a bad situation even worse because its books were in shambles and didn’t meet general accounting standards, and add to that the malfeasance by using client funds for corporate trading disregarded basic brokerage/finance rules that limit those activities.