MF Global Fires All 1,066 Members Of Its Brokerage Arm: Report

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The brokerage arm of collapsed futures firm MF Global Holdings Ltd has terminated its 1,066-member workforce, according to the trustee in charge of liquidating its assets.

The workers were notified their employment has ended immediately, though they will be paid through November 15, trustee James Giddens said in a statement on Friday.

Between 150 and 200 of the employees will be rehired to help with winding down the business and processing bankruptcy claims, according to the statement.

"The termination of employees and closure of operations is a necessary part of the court-ordered liquidation ... and is consistent with the trustee's obligations," Giddens said.

The U.S. futures regulator has begun a formal probe into the collapse of the brokerage once run by Jon Corzine, a Wall Street legend and former New Jersey governor. The firm's bad bets on European debt triggered a crisis of confidence in one of the most active commodity brokers in the world.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission investigation follows the discovery that some $600 million was missing from segregated accounts, customer funds that are meant to be held separate from the broker's own money.

Giddens also said on Friday that his team is working to clear out the brokerage's New York offices as soon as possible and rent smaller, less expensive space as the liquidation moves forward.

MF Global's Chicago offices will continue to be leased for an undetermined amount of time, he said.

The brokerage liquidation is In re MF Global Inc, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Southern District of New York, No. 11-2790.

MF's bankruptcy case is In re MF Global Holdings Ltd, in the same court, No. 1-15059.

(Reporting by Nick Brown; Editing by Derek Caney and John Wallace)

Copyright 2011 Thomson Reuters. Click for Restrictions.

Comments

[Charles Queen]

03:51 PM on 11/15/2011

Where did all of that money go?Well,it's pretty obvious that it didn't just evaporate into thin air.They should be able to track it

[Olderandwiser55]

03:47 PM on 11/13/2011

The big story here should be deregulation....The CME is bailing them out...all very strange. we apparently only have the one real futures exchange with a platform from London.

Originally, the exchange was a non-profit organization. The exchange demutualized in November 2000, went public in December 2002, and it merged with the Chicago Board of Trade in July 2007 to become a designated contract market of the CME Group Inc. The Chief Executive Officer of CME Group is Craig S. Donohue.[1][2] On August 18, 2008 shareholders approved a merger with the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) and COMEX.

The Merc, CBOT, NYMEX and COMEX are now markets owned by the CME Group.

[NOSOCIALNETS]

02:26 PM on 11/13/2011

Should be firing their accountants.

[mooncop1]

10:32 AM on 11/13/2011

Looks like another piece of the democrat plan to destroy America has falling into place.

[Repo 105]

02:53 PM on 11/13/2011

So what would you rather do, give them a bailout?

[themodernleader]

07:35 AM on 11/13/2011

These 1056 employees performed the bankrupting work of speculating with the monies of private citizens who work in factories, small businesses , on farms and in government. Such loosely regulated organizations are a menace to any economic system that has value and worthy employment. Most of American financial transactions should be outlawed as thief and fraud. Our future is tied up in honest and honorable work. The work of Wall Street is gambling with other people's money..

[Tatters]

08:23 PM on 11/12/2011

Probably already paid out in bonuses to the management while staff gets shafted. SOP.

America is in a S*&$hole and the only ones crying foul are the Occupy Wall St. crowd. The rest will sulk and collect food stamps while sending out resumes to get jobs that will not materialize. Or you can compete with your son and grandpa for the Mickey D's job or other fast food joint.

Forget that! Join the Occupy movement and tell the 1% that you won't take this junk lying down anymore!

[rtgmath]

05:24 PM on 11/12/2011

Another criminal enterprise, mixing customer money with its own while gambling -- while calling it "investing".

So did Jon Corzine do this, too? People need to know.

So 600 million dollars is missing. It will stay missing. The high rollers know the Investment Firms are much more exciting than casinos are. They covered their losses with the money, and got to a point where they couldn't repay it.

These are the same 1% who tell you that regulations on banking and investment are bad, and who buy your congressmen. Time to convict and jail some CEOs and confiscate their illegally-obtained assets. Time to elect congressmen who are not beholden to the bankers. And it is time to hold banks and bankers responsible for their bad behavior.

[kamact]

04:22 PM on 11/12/2011

Throw Corzine in jail,...now!

[NOSOCIALNETS]

02:27 PM on 11/13/2011

No take his money first, THEN throw him in jail.

[Repo 105]

03:25 PM on 11/13/2011

Sounds good to me.

[Tony Moschetti]

03:15 PM on 11/12/2011

"collapse of the brokerage once run by Jon Corzine" "ONCE RUN?" Do you mean until he resigned in disgrace a week ago! Is Reuters a division of the Huff Post!

I guess MF wanted Corzine because of the $9 billion he left NJ in as governor. And I understand he was on the short list, he and Bernie Madoff, to be next Treasury Sec. Let's see, Obama first wanted Rubin until he destroyed Citigroup, then Daschle until it was discovered that he was a tax cheat, then there was Geithner, who WAS a tax cheat, and who while chairman of the NY Fed, oversaw the destrucrtion of some 9 large banks.

So I guess if you're a Democrat president your Treasury Sec options are limited, especially after Charles Rangel would not leave his more "lucrative" position as a member of congress, to take the position at Treasury.

Anyone still wonder why we're looking more like Greece every day!

[clark8642]

05:19 PM on 11/12/2011

We look nothing like Greece but tax cuts without spending cuts, while we sent our troops off to two wars and enhanced entitlements (Medicare Part D), again without any funding are not the mark of fiscal conservatives.

[Repo 105]

03:27 PM on 11/13/2011

I don't understand this "We're looking like Greece". Um, we were Greece, remember, September 2008? The financial crisis? That was our Greece moment. Apprently it passed you by.

[des946]

12:53 PM on 11/12/2011

The government's lackof regulations and overisght of the markets (which was "neabled by Congress; "relattion of regualtions) is the prime basis for the lack of integrity in the markets which have become so manipulated and corrupt.

Onlly a fool is going to invest in these markets . . . there is absolutely NO WAY to determine the REAL INTEGRITY of ANY investments in the markets. Poof . . . $600 MILLION of investors' money gone . . . never to be recouped. . . and this is happening over, and over, and over again. Why aren't these CRIMINALS being indicated, prosectued and then IMPRISONED so the MAXIMUM SENTENCES for these FRAUDS?

[bentpan]

12:01 PM on 11/12/2011

DEMOCRAT N.J. GOV. JOHN CORSINE robs $600 million from his investors to gamble on bankrupt countries and HUFF POST makes absolutely no mention of his party affiliation. Of course democrat and responcable money management should never be mentioned together so it's hard to feel sorry for those investors he effectively stole from. I'm sure a good bit of those missing funds found their way into his and the DNC's pockets

[vicoroni07]

02:58 AM on 11/12/2011

Goaded by battalions of corporate lobbyists, members of Congress are working to give a select group of U.S. multinational firms like Apple, Oracle and Pfizer a lavish tax break on a trillion dollars stashed offshore.
The avowed goal is to generate jobs and investment, but the offshore tax holiday was tried before, in 2004, and the lion's share of the benefits went not to unemployed workers and their families, but to corporate shareholders and executives. But 73 members of Congress, both Republicans and Democrats, have signed up as co-sponsors. And cash-rich mega corporations are pushing hard for the tax break. A number of trade groups and corporations that would benefit have joined in a coalition called WIN America . New lobbying disclosure reports show that the group and its member firms have spent millions of dollars, and employed dozens of lobbyists, to press for the tax break, according to an analysis by iWatch News. The 2004 holiday allowed U.S. firms to bring their offshore profits back and pay a rate of only 5.25 percent. "I want them to pay their taxes like the rest of us," said Sen. Carl Levin, the Democrat from Michigan whose committee compiled the report. Michigan's unemployment remains among the highest in the country. "The rest of us don't get a tax holiday."
Here is the full story.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/the-center-for-public-integrity/wealthy-corporations-with_b_1028327.html

[vmf211]

01:15 AM on 11/12/2011

WHY isn't OWS out in from of EX DEMOCRATIC GOVERNOR OF N.J. Jon Corzine's house?
Because he is the reason that wall st is sticking it to the little guy.

[NOSOCIALNETS]

02:28 PM on 11/13/2011

hear! hear! fanned!

[blknightowl]

01:05 AM on 11/12/2011

Interesting. I feel for the workers. The top people who gambled, not so much.

Nobody invests 100% of someone else's funds into a "Global" investment scheme. But this guy did. Why is no one investigating? What does his "umbrella package" look like? The workers don't even get severance pay....Wow. Merry Christmas.

[Galamachis]

12:24 AM on 11/12/2011

Interesting this story is burried but articles about sex with animals is front page. Hack-ington Post.