Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Farmers and ranchers sue over MF Global debacle

Montana farmers trapped in the $1.2 billion collapse of brokerage giant MF Global are suing its officers and its business partners for trade violations. The lawsuit filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Missoula targets not only MF Global CEO Jon Corzine, a former Democratic governor and U.S. senator, but also auditor PricewaterhouseCoopers and banker J.P. Morgan for enabling MF trading practices that last October led to a $41 billion bankruptcy. Federal officials have been unable to find an estimated $1.2 billion in missing customer money, and MF Global is accused of dipping into segregated customer accounts, which were supposed to be off-limits. Those customers, 38,000 of whom were farmers and ranchers engaged in commodity trades, were unaware that their accounts were being drawn down. Investigators now believe that MF Global used client money to shore up bad investments in sovereign foreign debt. “They bet the farm on European sovereign debt. I just didn’t realize it was my farm they were betting,” said Marty Klinker, a Fairfield farmer who had $600,000 frozen in the MF Global bankruptcy...more

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Well, someone had to take them to court. Sadly it's not a criminal court. I hope the farmers are successful and that they drain Corzine.