newjerseynewsroom.com

BY BOB HOLT

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

Former New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine took over brokerage firm MF Global in March 2010 with the hope to approach the success he had achieved at Goldman Sachs from 1994 to 1999.

But MF Global now has $39.68 billion in liabilities and has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Last week MF Global’s stock fell 66 percent.

The New York Post reports that the company had a tentative agreement to sell its assets to Interactive Brokers Group Sunday, but the deal fell through. Corzine had been trying to reach an agreement with Barclays Capital, Goldman Sachs, Australian financial organization Macquarie Group among others to purchase parts of MF Global.

Corzine increased MF Global’s risk and used its own money to trade, including investments in European sovereign debt that shook up markets. According to Fox News, MF Global lost $186.6 million in its fiscal second quarter. The company blamed the big loss on weak trading revenue and one-time costs.

Also of concern to investors was MF Global's $6 billion in European debt being downgraded to junk status. The firm may be the first serious U.S. casualty of the European financial crisis.

An Associated Press story in the Wall Street Journal says that the head of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange says MF Global broke rules set by CMT and the Commodities Future Trading Commission that required it to safeguard clients' money.

Sunshine State News reports that Corzine is not expected to remain at MF Global, and is expected to receive a severance payment in the neighborhood of $12.1 million.

Analyst Edward Ditmire said, according to the New York Daily News, “We never would have imagined the predicament the firm is in now when Jon Corzine took over.”