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not too big to fail

Jon Corzine Knew About Missing Money, Claims Senate Witness

Jon Corzine, former CEO of MF Global, testifies before the House Agriculture Committee about the bankruptcy of MF Global on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, December 8, 2011.  In prepared testimony, Corzine -- once US senator, the governor of New Jersey, the head of Goldman Sachs and later MF Global -- apologized to investors and claims he cannot account for the loss of "many hundreds of millions of dollars." "I simply do not know where the money is, or why the accounts have not been reconciled to date," he said in the remarks.  Around $1.2 billion appears to be missing from the customer accounts of failed US broker, a liquidator of the company has said.    AFP PHOTO / Saul LOEB (Photo credit should read SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images) Corzine.

Ex-senator and former MF Global CEO Jon Corzine appeared before a congressional panel again today and failed to answer for the bankrupt firm's missing customer funds, continuing instead to stress that he has no idea where the money could be. "I never gave any instructions to misuse customer money, never intended to give any instructions or authority to misuse customer funds, and I find it very hard to understand how any one could misconstrue what I've said as a way to misuse customer money," said Corzine, clarifying his comments from last week. To say more, Corzine claimed, "I'd be completely out on a limb speculating. I literally would have to go back through thousands of pages." But Terrence Duffy, the chief executive of the CME Group, which is responsible for regulating MF Global, leveled a huge accusation, claiming that Corzine did in fact know about the missing funds. 

Duffy told the panel this afternoon that he learned about the impropriety only after his testimony last week. "Somebody went in and violated the rules of the CME and the rules of the government," Duffy said, but did not provide more detail about Corzine's role in the $175 million loan transfer to MF Global's European affiliates, which seems to have illegally included some client funds. Needless to say, if that's true, Corzine could be in huge trouble.

MF Global's CFO also insisted he did not know where the money is, to which Senator Debbie Stabenow snapped, "This isn't the Dark Ages. MF Global didn't keep their books with feather quills and dusty ledgers." That would only just begin to explain this $1.2 billion mistake.

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Photo: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images