Still no clarity on funds gone from MF Global

Former U.S. senator Jon S. Corzine, who presided over the collapse of commodities brokerage MF Global, returned to Capitol Hill and rebutted an allegation that he knew about loans the firm made using client money. ¶ For the third time in a week, the New Jersey Democrat and former governor testified before lawmakers who want to know how an estimated $1.2 billion ended up missing. As in prior appearances, Corzine said he did not know. ¶ At a Senate hearing, Terrence A. Duffy, executive chairman of the commodities exchange operator CME Group, said a CME auditor participated in a phone call with senior MF Global employees in which one ‘indicated that Mr. Corzine knew’ about loans from customer accounts.” ¶ Corzine countered: “While the last few days of MF Global were chaotic, I did not instruct anyone to lend customer funds to MF Global for any of its affiliates, nor was I told that anyone had done so.”

Business

Six former executives of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were charged with securities fraud by the SEC, which said they misled the public about the companies’ exposure to subprime loans during the onset of the mortgage meltdown. The executives named in the civil suits include Daniel H. Mudd, former chairman and chief executive of Fannie Mae, and Richard F. Syron, who held the same positions at Freddie Mac.

Loading...

Comments

• Weigh In
• Corrections?

Personal Post

More on this Story

• Pearlstein: Stop political funding and end the stalemate
• Color of Money: Gift ideas for caregivers
• Still no clarity on funds gone from MF Global
• The systemic risk revealed by MF Global’s collapse

View all Items in this Story

• Xbox Live app review
• Quickoffice Pro app review
• Stocks slide to a slump at week’s end
• More Post Business stories

The federal government’s first auction of offshore petroleum leases in the Gulf of Mexico since the Deepwater Horizon oil spill drew $337.7 million in winning bids. ConocoPhillips submitted the largest bid, agreeing to pay $103.2 million for a deep-water tract.

Zynga, the largest maker of games for Facebook, declined in its first day of trading after raising $1 billion in an IPO that gave it a greater valuation than rival Electronic Arts. The IPO valued Zynga at as much as $7 billion.

Lee Enterprises, owner of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and 47 other daily U.S. newspapers, filed for bankruptcy protection. Lee listed both assets and liabilities of more than $1 billion.

Xe Services, formerly known as Blackwater, changed its name for a second time in less than three years. The security firm is now called Academi. Chief executive Ted Wright said the name reflected changes the company has undergone since investors bought it in 2010 from founder Erik Prince.

Stiefel Laboratories and its former chairman were sued by U.S. regulators for buying back stock from employees without disclosing key information, including its acquisition talks with GlaxoSmithKline. The SEC said shareholders were defrauded out of more than $110 million.

Morgan Stanley and insurance company MBIA reached a settlement over disputes involving mortgage-backed investments. MBIA will pay $1.1 billion, and Morgan Stanley will withdraw its claims.

Facebook launched a tool that allows users to confidentially chat online with a suicide prevention counselor.

China will impose anti-dumping duties on some vehicles imported from the United States after failing to block a U.S. tariff on Chinese tires. Punitive duties will be as high as 12.9 percent for automobiles from General Motors and 8.8 percent for Chrysler Group.

Philip Morris USA and R.J. Reynolds Tobacco have agreed to pay $6.25 million to support the country’s largest online collection of internal tobacco industry documents, the Justice Department said.

BlackBerry maker Research in Motion said that delivery of new phones deemed critical to the company’s future will be delayed until late 2012; it also said BlackBerry sales are expected to fall sharply this quarter.

Amazon said customers have bought about 1 million of its Kindle e-book readers and tablets in each of the past three weeks; the most detailed sales numbers the company has released.

Jailed Texas financier R. Allen Stanford faces a mental competency hearing Tuesday in which a federal judge will decide whether he is fit to stand trial on charges that he bilked investors out of $7 billion in a Ponzi scheme.