“I never gave any instruction to anyone at MF Global to misuse customer funds,” Jon Corzine testified during the Senate Agriculture Committee hearing today.
Caption: Corzine testifies in front of Senate Ag Committee with policy makers, stakeholders and several farmers in attendence. This photo taken by farmer and Minnesota Farm Bureau President, Kevin Paap, was taken this morning during the hearing.
MF Global clients, many of whom are farmers, are missing an estimated $1.2 billion dollars to date. Today senators demanded that Corzine, former CEO of MF Global; Bradley Abelow, the firm’s president and chief operating officer; and Henri Steenkamp, the chief financial officer, explain what happened during the days leading up to what has become known as the eighth largest bankruptcy in American history. All three distanced themselves from the issue during testimony, claiming they never asked anyone to misuse funds, implying they didn’t know it was happening. -- More Background on This Story --
Jim Wiesemeyer, policy analyst for Informa Economics, told our editor Greg Vincent that this situation is similar to the financial implosion of 2008 last week at the Farm Journal Forum. Wiesemeyer says there are no easy answers to the problem and that it will take time and lots of research for Congress to sort through what to do next. Watch this short interview for more analysis of the situation.
