MF Global Clients May Recover All Their Money

MF Global Holdings Ltd (PINK: MFGLQ)'s brokerage customers, who are still owed an estimated $1.6 billion, will be able to get all their money back, reports The Wall Street Journal.

Louis Freeh, a bankruptcy trustee overseeing the holding company's liquidation, said in testimony submitted for a Senate Agriculture Committee hearing scheduled for Wednesday, that "it is my belief" customers will be repaid.

Freeh said farmers, ranchers, traders and other investors still owed some $1.6 billion "eventually will be made whole." He said he based his conclusion on estimates of the return of customer funds from foreign jurisdictions and settlements obtained by a separate trustee for the MF Global Inc. brokerage unit.

A person familiar with Freeh's analysis said there might even be enough left over once customers are repaid to distribute roughly $500 million or more in additional assets to the company's creditors, the Journal said Wednesday.

MF Global collapsed in October after investors abandoned it following revelations of heavy bets it made on European debt. When the firm sank, a huge chunk of money was missing from the accounts of the company's trader customers.

So far, no one has been charged with wrongdoing related to the use of customer funds. In June, trustee James Giddens said he might bring claims against MF Global's former Chief Executive Officer Jon Corzine and other former executives.