Debts and Assets

The missing funds were reported yesterday by the New York Times. As much as $950 million was thought to be missing at first, and that figure fell to less than $700 million as the firm reviewed its accounting, the Times said today, citing people briefed on the matter. More funds may show up in coming days, the report said.

MF Global listed debt of $39.7 billion and assets of $41 billion in Chapter 11 papers filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan.

Corzine, who won the top job at Goldman Sachs by leading the firm's fixed-income unit, was recruited to the firm in 1975 as a trainee on the government bond desk. He graduated in 1969 from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, served in the Marine Corps Reserve and received his master's degree in business administration from the University of Chicago in 1973.

Corzine was elected to the U.S. Senate a year after he left Goldman Sachs in 1999 with an estimated $400 million as the firm went public. He became governor in 2006 and was defeated in November 2009 by Republican Chris Christie.

Five Buyers

MF Global's board met through the weekend to consider options including a sale, a person with direct knowledge of the situation said. The firm was in discussions with five potential buyers for all or parts of the company, including banks, private-equity firms and brokers, a person with knowledge of the matter said on Oct. 28.

Interactive Brokers Group Inc. was still considering a rescue early yesterday, but pulled out after the discrepancy surfaced in customer accounts, The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday, citing unidentified sources.

Thomas Peterffy, Interactive Brokers' chief executive officer, didn't respond to a request for comment.

"The first thing you do in any liquidation is go through the accounts and figure out what's in there and whether they've been properly credited," said Peter Henning, a law professor at Wayne State University in Detroit. "If they say it's been credited and in fact they're not there, then you have some very major problems."

 

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