(Source: Alejandra Cancino Chicago Tribune (MCT)) — Chicago-based CME Group Inc. has received two subpoenas seeking information and witnesses in the investigation of the collapse ofMF Global Holdings Ltd., according to the company’s annual filing Tuesday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The subpoenas were issued Nov. 1 by a federal grand jury in the Northern District of Illinois and Nov. 3 by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s enforcement division. CME Group said it also received a document request Jan. 31 from James Giddens, the trustee overseeing the liquidation of broker-dealer MF Global Inc., a subsidiary of MF Global Holdings.
CME said it is cooperating but did not disclose any details of the scope of the information sought.
MF Global Holdings filed for bankruptcy protection from creditors Oct. 31 after customers and investors spooked by the company’s large bets on European debt fled the firm. CME Group, owner of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and the Chicago Board of Trade, said the firm’s collapse is being investigated by the Department of Justice, the FBI, the trading commission and the SEC.
A separate investigation by Giddens revealed that MF Global Inc. used money from customer-segregated accounts to finance other daily activities as its parent company struggled to keep afloat. The deficit in the customer accounts is estimated at $1.6 billion. Giddens has said the shortfall began Oct. 26, a day before CME Group sent auditors to MF Global’s Chicago offices.
“We were the designated self-regulatory organization for MF Global, meaning we were responsible for conducting periodic audits of the futures commission merchant pursuant to Joint Audit Committee standards,” CME Group said in the filing. “We believe that we carried out our duties and responsibilities in accordance with these standard procedures.”
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Source: Alejandra Cancino Chicago Tribune (MCT)
