On the One-Year Anniversary of MF Global Bankruptcy, Still No Charges Against Obama's Best Friend on Wall Street

October 31, 2012

On the One-Year Anniversary of MF Global Bankruptcy, Still No Charges Against Obama's Best Friend on Wall Street

(WASHINGTON) – On October 31, 2011, MF Global Holdings Ltd. filed for bankruptcy, and on the one-year anniversary of the firm's collapse no criminal charges have been filed against anyone for the misuse of $1.6 billion in customer funds. Under federal law, commodities trading firms like MF Global are required to segregate customer funds from their trading accounts. But, it is widely known now that MF Global and illegally used customer funds to place bets on European sovereign debt.

Jon Corzine, former Democrat Governor and U.S. Senator from New Jersey, was at the head of MF Global when it was independently discovered that hundreds of millions of dollars in customer funds were missing. Just a few days after the firm filed for bankruptcy, Corzine resigned from his position. He testified on several occasions before House and Senate Committees, including the House Committee on Agriculture, on which Congressman Tim Huelskamp of Kansas serves. During the Agriculture Committee hearing, Corzine was evasive and less than forthcoming with what he knew and when he knew it. Congressman Huelskamp's office created a video compiling Corzine's unhelpful and self-serving testimony.

"For all the talk of the Obama Administration and its Justice Department cracking down on Wall Street misdeeds, a glaring and intentional oversight is the failure to prosecute Jon Corzine at MF Global for the theft of more than $1 billion," Congressman Tim Huelskamp said. "Jon Corzine is one of the biggest villains on Wall Street, yet because Corzine was the one Vice President Biden called for advice during the nation's financial crisis and because Corzine has bundled half a million dollars in campaign contributions for the President's reelection efforts, Corzine apparently gets off scot-free? Farmers and ranchers had their money tied up and some have yet to be made whole, honest people at MF Global lost their jobs, and Americans were given yet another reason to lose confidence in America's financial system, yet Corzine apparently relaxed the last year in France free from prosecution as a Friend of Obama."

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