MF Global

MF Global commodity customers, whose cash vanished when the firm collapsed last year, lost more than first thought. The New York Times reports that MF Global’s missing funds have grown to 1.6-billion dollars. MF Global’s British subsidiary is holding 700-thousand dollars. The trustee tasked with recovering the money did not include the 700-million when projecting the shortfall, hoping to avoid a battle with MF Global’s British arm.

The trustee, James Giddens, acknowledges that he is making little headway in recovering the money from KPMG, the court-appointed administrator for MF Global’s British subsidiary. That money, Giddens says, was held for American clients who traded on foreign exchanges.

The problem echoes a cross-border fight in the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy, when customer money was trapped overseas. More than three years later, that issue remains unresolved.