The Senate Ag Committee held its hearing on the MF Global bankruptcy Tuesday. During the hearing, Chairwoman Senator Debbie Stabenow questioned MF Global executives over the circumstances that led to the collapse of the financial firm and the estimated 1.2-billion dollars in missing customer funds. Former MF Global CEO Jon Corzine and other MF Global executives, and regulators who oversee the commodities markets participated in the hearing.

 

Stabenow pointed out – this hearing is about three things: getting the customer’s money back, holding anyone engaged in wrongdoing accountable, and ensuring that proper customer protections are in place so that something like this doesn’t happen again. She said – our farmers and ranchers have lost trust in the system. They believed there were safeguards in place to protect their money in exactly this situation.

 

A major question concerns the separation of customer funds from organizational funds. It appears that has not happened in this case. Tuesday’s hearing is the latest step in an ongoing examination of the circumstances surrounding the October 31 bankruptcy of MF Global.