MF GLOBAL STEALS 1.2 BILLION - NOBODY INDICTED

MF Global trustee doubles estimates of shortfall

By Nick Brown and David Sheppard

NEW YORK | Tue Nov 22, 2011 5:59am EST

(Reuters) - The shortfall of commodity customer funds at MF Global Holdings Ltd (MFGLQ.PK) may be around $1.2 billion, about double initial estimates from regulators, the trustee liquidating the company said on Monday.
The news was a blow to customers still hoping to get more of their cash out of frozen broker accounts and raised new questions about why the authorities managed to locate only about 60 percent of the segregated customer funds three weeks after the parent firm's October 31 bankruptcy.
"I'm flabbergasted," said Tom Ward, a retired Chicago Board of Trade member whose two sons cleared their futures trades through MF Global and have been blocked from accessing their money. "The bottom line is, there's going to be a haircut involved. It's devastating, what this has done to the industry."
Monday's announcement was trustee James Giddens' first public statement on the size of the shortfall, which regulators initially said was about $600 million.

With the failed Super Committee and the European Debt Implosion this story is being glossed over.  What is means is this: your broker, your bank, may be using your money to gamble in the markets.  If they lose, your money may be gone.  How will you know?

Commodity Brokerage Firm Closes, Says Markets Not Safe

November 19th, 2011
in econ_news

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Econintersect:  The following is the introduction to a letter sent by a real CEO of a real brokerage firm specializing in agricultural commodities.

“Dear Clients, Industry Colleagues and Friends of Barnhardt Capital Management,

It is with regret and unflinching moral certainty that I announce that Barnhardt Capital Management has ceased operations. After six years of operating as an independent introducing brokerage, and eight years of employment as a broker before that, I found myself, this morning, for the first time since I was 20 years old, watching the futures and options markets open not as a participant, but as a mere spectator.

The reason for my decision to pull the plug was excruciatingly simple: I could no longer tell my clients that their monies and positions were safe in the futures and options markets – because they are not. And this goes not just for my clients, but for every futures and options account in the United States.