MF Global Executives Could Get Six-Figure Bonuses Despite Collapse

What do you do after your company implodes and customer money goes missing? You collect a bonus, of course.

As many as 23 employees at MF Global, the brokerage firm that collapsed in October, might get bonuses for their assistance with the company's bankruptcy investigation, The Wall Street Journal reported Friday. Among them are three higher-ups -- president and CEO Bradley Abelow, chief financial officer Henri Steenkamp, and general counsel Laurie Ferber -- who could take home bonuses of up to six figures each, according to the WSJ.

The MF Global employees in a position to collect bonuses would do so if they can help the former FBI director overseeing the liquidation of the firm's assets with the job, the WSJ reports.

MF Global was one of the highest-profile financial failures of 2011, and news that some of its senior members might go home with major payouts -- reminiscent of the hundred million dollars paid in bonuses to AIG executives shortly after that company's bailout -- is unlikely to be well received by the firm's critics. The collapse of MF Global made headlines last fall for its sheer magnitude (it was the eighth-largest bankruptcy in U.S. history) and for the way it seemed to confirm fears that the European sovereign debt crisis had the capacity to poison U.S. financial institutions.

The case also got a great deal of attention due to a massive shortfall on MF Global's books -- a gap of about $1.6 billion in customer funds that nobody, including ex-CEO and former New Jersey governor Jon Corzine, could account for at first.

The missing money has been the source of much outrage and anxiety among MF Global's customers -- sentiments that were not soothed by revelations like that of Corzine pricing a chateau in the south of France while his company was circling the drain.

Most of that money has since been tracked down, according to The New York Times, although it remains unclear how much it will be possible to retrieve.

Meanwhile, authorities say that it may be impossible to attach a criminal charge to anyone affiliated with MF Global, citing difficulties with proving malicious intent.

Comments

[Kenneth Mundy]

11:35 AM on 03/22/2012

You people must remember that if this MF thing had not happened. John Corzine would most likely be our next treasury secretary.

[Flying Sparkz1]

08:43 PM on 03/12/2012

The anthem of the wealthy,"Pay yourself first!"

[Ramon Noches]

04:42 PM on 03/12/2012

I have heard such nonsense before so I elected to give it the logic test, now let's see you lead a company into the tank, then get a huge bonus because you helped figure out what happened. Now say the average person runs their car into a light pole, it falls over and crashes through a huge plate glass window with a huge million-dollar Ming Dynasty Vase on display; the vase joins in on the parade of flying glass. Because you saw the whole thing unfold and helped in the investigation what do you think you will receive: A. A huge reward for being so helpful; B. A bill to pay for all the damage; or C. A hug from the store manager for bringing so much publicity to his company?

[lillianya]

08:04 PM on 03/14/2012

I love your example! Well said!

[drkazmd65]

07:28 AM on 03/12/2012

Isn't it 'Amazing' how a company can 'lose' $1.6 Billion dollars that it is not supposed to be able to touch (from customer accounts),... and nobody goes to jail?

But if some poor person steals money to buy food or steals food itself,.... they often can?

It's nice to be part of the 1%!

[jcaunter]

05:19 AM on 03/12/2012

Our system is so openly criminal now that its a wonder anyone is still participating.

[ejhickey2]

03:20 AM on 03/12/2012

Make these 23 former MFG “execs” run a gauntlet for the money. the gauntlet would be made up of former MFG customers and employees and would be 6 blocks long. each bonus would be in cash in a briefcase at the end . If each exec can make to the briefcase standing, he or she keeps the money. If not , the funds will be passed out to the crowd. Sounds fair doesn’t it?

[drkazmd65]

07:28 AM on 03/12/2012

Works for me,...

[NOSOCIALNETS]

04:29 PM on 03/11/2012

Not the first or last time a FAIL gets a bonus. What a life.

[Bunny007]

03:38 PM on 03/11/2012

OPEN Letter to Jamie Dimon---

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/guest-post-open-letter-jamie-dimon

[castlemike]

11:59 PM on 03/10/2012

http://www.opalesque.com/641018/Do_they_think_we_are101.html

One critical goal among those on the side of JP Morgan and other creditors is that they are attempting to confuse the issue, so it helps to start with a simple analogy of what occurred.

Imagine for a moment that MF Global was your bank. One day you woke up and discovered that the account holding your college savings was gone. Poof! The money in your retirement accounts and related checking accounts had just been "vaporized."

How would you react?

In criminal investigations, shouldn’t the witnesses to a crime and suspects be interviewed before a case "goes cold?"

How stupid do they think we are?

Rules of propaganda teach us that if you repeat something long enough, no matter how absurd, it will eventually be believed.

These claims of back office "mistakes" stand beside a less reported note.

In sworn Congressional testimony CMEGroup Chairman Terry Duffy was clear.

Just before the bankruptcy, critical documents given to regulators by MF Global had been falsified. Mr. Corzine’s sworn testimony had been called into question by an MF Global employee – an employee now potentially being prevented from talking, a story that needs to be told to prosecutors.

Not only has potential fraud been publically disclosed, but a web of fraud may lie underneath the 8th largest bankruptcy in US history.

But, as the propaganda campaign goes: Ignore MF Global. No fraud investigation required here.

[shadow013]

09:07 PM on 03/10/2012

Essentially we're going to bonus these guys for covering up "vaporized" instead of asking other people in the company for information that could show fraud or habitual inappropriate practices of using/co-mingling customer money and then putting it back in the right account later ....

[castlemike]

06:52 PM on 03/10/2012

http://jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.com/2012/03/mf-global-trustee-asking-customers-to.html

08 March 2012
MF Global Trustee Giddens Asks Customers To Release Legal Claims In Return For Their Money

It is hard to believe that the Trustee Giddens intends to ask customers to surrender their right to sue Jon Corzine and other parties in return for only a partial repayment of their stolen money.

This could be a simple misunderstanding. This would be a bit much even by the outrageous double standards of this scandal.

Let's see how this is resolved.

Bloomberg
MF Global Customers Call Trustee’s Demands ‘Unwarranted’
By Linda Sandler
Mar 8, 2012

MF Global Inc. trustee asked futures customers to release claims on the defunct brokerage in return for money they are owed, demanding an “unwarranted” transfer of legal rights, a group of customers said.

The customers, including William Fleckenstein, Thomas Wacker and Summit Trust Co., said in a court filing yesterday that they were notifying the judge supervising the firm’s liquidation of their “concern” in case he wasn’t aware that trustee James Giddens had mailed his demands to some customers along with his determination of their claims. One of Giddens’s demands may require customers to release claims made in class- action lawsuits, they said.

[drkazmd65]

07:30 AM on 03/12/2012

Wow,... so "IF" you agree to not prosecute us for stealing from you and getting caught,... we'll give you back your money,....

Priceless,....

Heads should roll.

[DiogenesOfAlaska]

06:14 PM on 03/10/2012

bonus? Only if Corzine happens to recall where all the money's at.

[Bunny007]

05:23 PM on 03/10/2012

We need a KONY-style video on the MF Global crimes NOWWWW~

The cover up by Washington and Wall Street is off the CHARTS!

If the money in these accounts wasn't safe, than what makes anyone think the money in ANY BANK is safe??? When the time comes to loot those, they will just insert legal loop hole, change the rules--- and VOILA...."We're sorry--but your checking acct has been "vaporized"...

Demand ACTION

[aforbes808]

12:16 PM on 03/10/2012

I'm gonna go make a donation to OWS. Peace.

[aforbes808]

12:09 PM on 03/10/2012

Meanwhile, authorities say that it may be impossible to attach a criminal charge to anyone affiliated with MF Global, citing difficulties with proving malicious intent.

NOT GOOD ENOUGH! We want handcuffs, not wrist slaps. Where is the outrage in the White House? The House of Representatives? The Senate? Neither side wants daylight on Wall St. thievery. NOT GOOD ENOUGH!

BTW- Anyone know what's going on with the STOCK Act? Crickets from D.C. makes me think they aren't serious. Status Quo is alive and well. Good times. Peace