1. It has long been a cornerstone of customer protection laws that a commodity
futures broker, known as a futures commission merchant ("FCM"), must at all times segregate
customer funds intended for futures trading on U.S. exchanges ("customer segregated funds")
and may never use these customer funds for the FCM' s own purposes. When an FCM knows or
should know that accounts holding customer segregated funds ("customer segregated accounts")
do not hold sufficient funds to meet the FCM's financial obligations to all customers, the FCM,
through its responsible personnel, must immediately notify the CFTC and the applicable
designated self-regulatory organization ("DSRO"). To safeguard customer funds further, CFTC
regulations limit an FCM's ability to invest customer funds to ce1iain authorized investments. In
this case, MF Global Inc. ("MF Global"), an FCM with deficient systems and controls, on the
brink of failure and in desperate need of cash to survive, invaded its customer funds and violated
these fundamental customer protections on a scale never previously seen in the U.S. futures
markets, harming thousands of people. As alleged below, Jon Corzine, the Chief Executive
Officer ("CEO"), is legally responsible for MF Global's misuse of customer money. Edith
O'Brien, MF Global's Assistant Treasurer, is also liable.
