Former MF Global customers are urging a judge to exercise caution in allowing ex-officials of the failed brokerage to continue tapping an insurance policy to pay for the defense of lawsuits stemming from the firm’s collapse. The former MF Global officials won’t back down “until the court turns off the spigot and the litigation finally has serious financial consequences to them,” a group of customers backing a class-action lawsuit against former MF Global leaders wrote in a letter filed Monday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan. More in the Wall Street Journal [...]

Lawyers for defunct brokerage MF Global on Monday asked a U.S. bankruptcy judge to impose procedures to limit mounting legal fees incurred by Jon Corzine and other former company insiders in litigation over their role in MF’s 2011 collapse. James Giddens, trustee for MF’s former broker-dealer unit, and Bruce Bennett, a lawyer for its defunct parent company, in court papers said former Chief Executive Officer Corzine, former Chief Operating Officer Bradley Abelow and other ex-insiders are mounting exorbitant legal bills through excessive defense tactics. The filings came in response to requests last month by the insiders for a $10 million increase, from $30 million to $40 million, on the money they are allowed to tap from MF Global insurance policies to fund their defense costs. More on Reuters [...]

Jon Corzine lost his bid for dismissal of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trade Commission’s lawsuit over the 2011 collapse of MF Global Holdings Ltd. The requests of Corzine and former MF Global Assistant Treasurer Edith O’Brien to throw out the case are “without merit,” U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero said in a ruling filed Jan. 17 in Manhattan federal court. More on Bloomberg [...]

Insurance against losses for U.S. futures customers may be feasible, according to a study commissioned after MF Global Holdings Ltd. and Peregrine Financial Group Inc. collapsed. The study, commissioned by CME Group Inc., the Futures Industry Association, the Institute for Financial Markets and the National Futures Association, surveyed private insurance companies to gauge their interest in providing protection to customers if their futures broker goes bankrupt, according to a statement released today. More on Bloomberg BusinessWeek [...]

A federal judge on Tuesday rejected a bid by former MF Global Holdings Ltd chief executive Jon Corzine to dismiss investor litigation seeking to hold him, other executives and many banks responsible for the futures brokerage’s rapid collapse. In a sometimes acerbic decision that likened MF Global’s demise to a “massive train wreck,” U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero in Manhattan rejected the defendants’ contention that the company’s October 31, 2011, bankruptcy was beyond their control, and not the product of securities fraud. More on Reuters [...]

CME Group Inc. plans to hand over to futures traders half the money CME is owed by MF Global Inc., helping repay the failed brokerage’s former customers more quickly. CME’s move came a day after a New York bankruptcy court judge approved a plan for MF Global’s brokerage to pay back 100% of the money owed to its U.S. and overseas commodity customers, just over two years after the firm’s collapse.
More in the Wall Street Journal [...]

Two years after $1.6 billion vanished from their accounts, MF Global’s customers are now all but assured to collect every last penny. A federal bankruptcy court judge approved a plan on Tuesday that would close the remaining shortfall for some 20,000 customers, many whose lives were derailed when their money disappeared in the firm’s final days. More in the New York Times [...]

The trustee liquidating the brokerage unit of MF Global Holdings Ltd has asked a federal bankruptcy judge for permission to return remaining funds to commodity trader customers affected by the firm’s 2011 collapse. Wednesday’s request by court-appointed trustee James Giddens would reallocate some money earmarked for general unsecured creditors to customers of the brokerage, who have a higher-priority payback status. The move could bring closure to customers who have waited nearly two years to fully recover their money, which became tied up when MF Global went bankrupt on Oct. 31, 2011. More on Reuters [...]