CME Group Vice Chairman Charles Carey, CME Director Joseph Niciforo, and several other Chicago-based traders have filed a lawsuit against several former MF Global executives, including ex-CEO Jon Corzine. The suit alleges that the failed brokerage improperly handed accounts for the plaintiffs’ trading firm, which is independent of the CME Group.
A lawyer for the plaintiffs explained that he is trying to have the lawsuit certified as a class action. “Our clients are the victims of Corzine’s folly,” he explained. If he is successful, the holders of 38,000 commodity accounts would be represented in this complaint. Carey is seeking to recover the missing funds for all customers defrauded by the company, as well as additional damages, while holding Corzine and four other MF Global executives personally liable. MF Global itself is not named in the suit.
Meanwhile, regulators and trustees are still scrambling to return the customer funds still missing after the firm’s bankruptcy. The shortfall is estimated to be over $1.2 billion.
Last week Terrence Duffy, CME’s executive chairman, accused MF Global of timing the movement of customer funds to avoid notice by his firm’s auditors. He challenged the timeline given by Corzine, and has alleged that Corzine knew about the transfers, despite the CEO’s statements to the contrary.
