明富环球破产案乱象愈演愈烈

    大型机构投资者如今也尝到了许多纳税人在金融危机期间失败受挫的滋味：为肆意妄为的金融机构造成的损失买单。

    当然，这次处于漩涡中心的是明富环球金融集团（MF Global）。美国券商明富环球金融集团的历史可以追溯到18世纪，是一家深受信赖的金融机构，如今却申请破产，同时涉嫌挪用高达6亿美元的客户资金。

    明富环球金融集团在万圣节申请破产保护两周后，人们依然满腹疑问。调查过程充满矛盾，原本旨在恢复公众信心，结果却适得其反。周一，本案的破产受托人宣布，明富环球金融集团账户上去向不明的资金可能远远不止6亿美元——实际数额也许高达12亿美元。数亿美元的交易资金和抵押品在没有通知的情况下遭到冻结，极大地扰乱了金融衍生品市场。联邦检察官、监管机构和法务会计正在夜以继日地工作，追查这些失踪资金的下落。尽管如此，就在本月早些时候，明富环球金融集团的律师还曾经向纽约法官保证，“不存在资金短缺问题”。

    本案有什么与众不同的地方？有位对冲基金经理人说的很有道理：“明富环球金融集团破产的可怕之处在于，这个国家没有政治意愿来维护民众的利益。我们应该记住这件事的教训，那就是如果有人打算偷你的钱，根本就没人会保护你。我的意思是说，这是金融界最可怕的事情。”

    公众感到愤怒，同时认为如果他们自己不采取措施，那么没有人会为他们着想——几周来，投资者不断收集信息，团结起来保护自己的权益。其中最引人瞩目的团体是商品客户联盟（Commodity Customer Coalition），台风资本管理公司（Typhon Capital Management）首席执行官詹姆斯•库图拉斯代表明富环球金融集团的几千位前客户领导这个联盟。交易员们也卷了进来，其中有亚伯拉罕投资管理公司（Abraham Investment Management）的安德鲁•亚伯拉罕。他撰写了大量文章，披露投资者的权益遭到忽视，只有部分资金获得返还。他认为这种方式并不公平，华盛顿的政府官员应该受到指责。

    各方努力目前初见成效。11月17日，美国破产法院的马丁•格伦法官批准解冻5.2亿美元现金，返还给明富环球金融集团的2.3万名客户，这笔资金将在一周内发放完毕。

    Big institutional investors are getting a taste of what many frustrated taxpayers experienced during the financial crisis: Being on the hook for losses of a major financial firm against their wishes.

    This time, of course, it's MF Global at the center of the dispute. A once-trusted brokerage with roots dating back to the 1700s, MF Global is now a bankrupt firm suspected of misappropriating customer funds to the tune of at least $600 million.

    More than two weeks after MF Global's Halloween bankruptcy filing, there are more questions than answers and a surfeit of conflicts in an investigation that should be aiming to restore the public's confidence, but is doing the opposite. On Monday, the bankruptcy trustee for the case announced that there may be much more than $600 million missing from MF Global accounts -- perhaps as much as $1.2 billion. Hundreds of millions of dollars of trading capital and collateral were frozen without notice, dramatically disrupting the derivatives marketplace and ushering in a phalanx of federal prosecutors, regulatory agencies and forensic accountants working around the clock to determine where the missing money is. This, after a lawyer for MF Global assured a New York judge earlier this month "there is no shortfall."

    What's different about this case? One hedge fund executive summed it up best: "What is scary about MF Global is that there is no political will in this country to look out for people. Let this be a lesson that, if someone tries to steal from you, there is no one who is going to save you. I mean it is literally the most frightening thing that can happen in finance."

    Led by a sense of outrage -- as well as the conviction that if they don't look out for themselves, no one else will -- investors have been pooling information and banding together to defend themselves for weeks. The most prominent group has been the Commodity Customer Coalition, spearheaded by James Koutoulas, chief executive of Typhon Capital Management, who's representing a few thousand former MF Global clients. Traders have also taken to the blogosphere, including Andrew Abraham of Abraham Investment Management, who's written extensively about how investors have been ignored, refunded only partially and in lopsided fashion and ought to complain to officials in Washington.

    It looks as though the pushback could finally be working: Thursday U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Martin Glenn approved a $520 million cash distribution to about 23,000 MF Global customers, which will take around a week to disburse.