By Sneha Shankar - MF Global Inc.’s customers will soon get back the $6.7 billion that the company owes them beginning Friday, news reports said Friday, citing a trustee for the company.
The payout will be shared by nearly 26,500 former customers of the brokerage, James Giddens, the trustee who is overseeing the company’s liquidation, reportedly said. However, litigation surrounding the company’s failure will continue to proceed even after the payments have been made.
“It gives me great pleasure to say that checks are going in the mail that will make all public customers of MF Global Inc. 100% whole,” Giddens reportedly said, in a statement, according to the Wall Street Journal. “When MF Global failed more than two years ago, few thought a way could be found to make customers whole.”
Giddens explained that repayments worth $5.4 billion would go to 24,020 former investors in U.S. commodities futures and options, while another $880 million would be paid to 2,047 former investors in foreign commodities. The remaining $376 million will go to 428 former customers of securities. The company will also have to pay $100 million in civil penalties despite paying off its shareholders.
Giddens, who leads the firm's corporate reorganization, added that some of the funds for repayments have come from settlements with former MF Global counterparties -- JPMorgan Chase & Co. NYSE:JPM and CME Group Inc NASDAQ:CME -- and additional funds may be received from MF Global’s British unit, MF Global UK, according to Reuters.
MF Global declared bankruptcy in October 2011 as concerns grew about the company's exposure to sovereign European debt worth $6.3 billion and, last week, the company sued Pricewaterhouse Coopers for $1 billion claiming that the consulting firm had provided wrong advice.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has also brought civil lawsuits against Jon S. Corzine, the company’s former CEO, and Edith O’Brien, a former finance official at MF Global, alleging that the duo misused customer funds.