U.S. Poised to Sue Corzine Over MF Global

Federal regulators are preparing to sue Jon S. Corzine over the collapse of MF Global and the brokerage firm’s misuse of customer money, DealBook’s Ben Protess reports. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the agency that regulated MF Global, plans to approve the lawsuit as soon as this week against Mr. Corzine, the former New Jersey governor who ran the firm until its bankruptcy in 2011, according to law enforcement officials with knowledge of the case. In a rare move, the agency has informed Mr. Corzine’s lawyers that it intends to file the civil case without offering him the opportunity to settle, setting up a potentially lengthy legal battle, Mr. Protess reports. “Without directly linking Mr. Corzine to the disappearance of more than $1 billion in customer money, the trading commission will probably blame the chief executive for failing to prevent the breach at a lower rung of the firm, the law enforcement officials said,” Mr. Protess writes. “If found liable, he could face millions of dollars in fines and possibly a ban from trading commodities, jeopardizing his future on Wall Street.” A spokesman for Mr. Corzine in a statement denounced the trading commission for planning to file what he called an “unprecedented and meritless civil enforcement action.”
More in the New York Times here.