Senator Calls For MF Global Hearing

After MF Global's trustee announced that $1.2 billion in customer funds are missing from the bankrupt MF Global, Kansas Sen. Pat Roberts is calling for the company's CEO Jon Corzine to testify before a Senate agricultural committee.

With the trustee in the MF Global bankruptcy case estimating that more than $1.2 billion in customer funds could be missing—double the previous estimate of $600 million —a U.S. senator is calling for MF Global’s CEO Jon Corzine to testify before a special Congressional hearing.

U.S. Senator Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) renewed his previous call for the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry to hold a special hearing focusing on the MF Global bankruptcy before the missing client funds’ was upped to $1.2 billion. Roberts wants Corzine, the Commodities Futures Trading Commission and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange Group to testify before the committee. Roberts’ press office sent out a release calling for the hearing today.

Given the startling announcement today that even more client funds are unaccounted for, it is even more important that we have a hearing focusing solely on MF Global in order to learn what went wrong,” Roberts said. “Investors, farmers, ranchers and agribusinesses all over the country, including many Kansans, want their money back and they want answers.”

In his release, Roberts’ noted that a hearing is scheduled for Dec. 1st to discuss Dodd-Frank implementation where CFTC Chairman Gary Gensler will testify. But Gensler, who worked under Corzine at Goldman Sachs and had donated $10,000 to the former New Jersey Senator and Governor’s campaign, has recused himself from the MF Global enforcement issues, and therefore might be unable to answer questions regarding the bankruptcy. Also, the subject of Dodd-Frank oversight is quite different than MF Global, the senator asserts.

Sen. Roberts is a ranking member of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry, which has jurisdiction over the CFTC.

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