MF Global starts final repayments of 100% of customer claims

MF Global Inc., the defunct brokerage once led by former New Jersey Sen. Jon Corzine, will begin final distributions to satisfy $6.7 billion in claims from former customers, starting tomorrow and lasting several weeks, the trustee overseeing the repayments said. “Checks are going in the mail that will make all public customers of MF Global Inc. 100 percent whole,” the trustee, James Giddens, said in a statement Thursday. He called the repayment in full, which he had predicted since November, the result of “Herculean efforts” by many professionals in the case. It will satisfy claims of more than 26,000 securities and commodities customers. MF Global Holdings Ltd., the brokerage's parent company, filed for bankruptcy on Oct. 31, 2011, after a wrong-way $6.3 billion bet on bonds of some of Europe's most indebted nations. More than $1.6 billion in customer funds that should have been segregated were missing. The company listed assets of $41 billion and debts of $39.7 billion. “The 100% customer recovery does not diminish the consequences of the unprecedented customer property segregation failure that led to MFGI's liquidation, including the length of time customers have been without their property,” Mr. Giddens said in Thursday's statement. Interim distributions have been made to customers. The final distribution was made possible by a temporary loan from the general estate of the parent company's bankruptcy and decisions by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Martin Glenn and U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero to reject objections by ex- managers including Mr. Corzine, the former MF Global chairman and chief executive officer. Mr. Corzine, who served as New Jersey governor and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. co-chairman, in November challenged a bankruptcy court ruling that would advance funds from the bankruptcy estate of the parent company to pay brokerage customers' claims. Other ex-MF Global managers who had been accused of wrongdoing in a lawsuit along with Mr. Corzine, including Bradley Abelow and Henri Steenkamp, joined him in the appeal. (Bloomberg News)