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发帖数: 29846 | 1 By MIKE SPECTOR And AARON LUCCHETTI
A Senate committee probing the collapse of MF Global Holdings Ltd. sent a
letter asking the trustee overseeing the failed financial firm to abandon a
plan to pay bonuses to former top executives.
Members of the Senate Agriculture Committee told the trustee, former Federal
of Bureau Investigation director Louis Freeh, in the letter that it would
be "outrageous" to proceed with a proposal to a bankruptcy judge that could
result in payouts of hundreds of thousands of dollars each for MF Global's
chief operating officer, finance chief and general counsel.
All three were at MF Global when it tumbled into bankruptcy protection and
an estimated $1.6 billion went missing from customer accounts. They are
currently working for Mr. Freeh at MF Global's bankruptcy estate.
The letter, written by Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D., Mich.), the panel's
chairwoman, was signed by all 21 Democrats and Republicans on the committee.
A spokeswoman for Mr. Freeh referred to a letter he sent to another senator
March 12 in which Mr. Freeh said he hadn't made any decisions on the bonuses
or their amounts. The bankruptcy court and a Justice Department
representative monitoring MF Global's case, among other people, would have
an opportunity to weigh in on any bonus proposal when it is made, and the
court would ultimately have to approve it, he added.
The letter came as a separate trustee overseeing MF Global's brokerage unit
proposed additional payments to commodities clients of the failed securities
and futures firm, including the first to those with accounts frozen on non-
U.S. exchanges.
Trustee James Giddens asked the bankruptcy judge overseeing MF Global to
approve a further distribution of as much as $685 million, adding about 10
cents on the dollar to the 72 cents already recovered by U.S. customers who
held funds on deposit.
The latest request includes about $600 million held as segregated assets for
clients trading on U.S. exchanges and another $50 million related to U.S.
customers trading overseas. An additional $35 million is related to physical
customer property that has been or will be reduced to cash.
An estimated $1.6 billion in client assets remain out of reach, with some
money missing and other funds held up by proceedings in other countries.
With customers still missing some of their money, Mr. Freeh, the trustee for
the holding company, has been under increasing pressure to resist paying
incentive bonuses to executives who were at the company when the shortfall
developed. Those executives and other MF Global employees haven't been
accused of wrongdoing.
The backlash comes after The Wall Street Journal reported last week that Mr.
Freeh planned to ask the bankruptcy judge in charge of MF Global's case to
approve potential bonuses for Bradley I. Abelow, Henri J. Steenkamp and
Laurie R. Ferber.
They were lieutenants of former MF Global Chairman and Chief Executive Jon S
. Corzine, the former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. GS -0.74% chairman and New
Jersey governor whose bets on bonds of troubled European countries led to a
run on MF Global last fall. He resigned in November after MF Global sought
bankruptcy protection.
"The executives who would receive these bonuses should be held accountable
for the failure of their company, not rewarded for diverting even more money
away from customers," said the letter.
—Doug Cameron and Patrick Fitzgerald contributed to this article. |
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