神奇小子拯救明富环球落难客户

    库图拉斯很早就涉足资本市场。出生在佛罗里达州日出市的库图拉斯打小就是个技术天才。赢得学校网站设计大赛之后，他获得了在一家电信初创企业实习的机会。从这家公司的CEO那里，他学到不少关于资本市场交易的知识，并且在16岁那年用炒技术股赚来的资本收益购买了他的第一部轿车。17岁时，他以实习生的身份为美邦银行（Smith Barney）设计了一套评估经纪人业绩的分析软件。从法学院毕业后，他创办了台风资本管理公司。“台风的商业模式基于这样一个事实：就本性而言，交易员都是非常散漫的，”库图拉斯说。“我掌握了很多技能，但我的思考方式更像是一位程序员。公司后台所有的法律和会计系统，以及产品的包装都是我完成的。公司基本实现了运营自动化。”

    但在内心深处，库图拉斯一直对法律系统持有怀疑态度，而这似乎正是明富环球的客户们所需要的。在巴恩斯和索恩伯格律师事务所(Barnes & Thornburg，其客户包括那些因明富环球破产而受损的人）的合伙人协助下，库图拉斯已经成功地追回了数亿美元的客户资金，并且让全国上下注意到明富环球客户所遭受的困境，他们中有些人依然在绝望地等待着资金返还。“目前所取得的进展基本上都是我们自己争取来的，”他说。“但依然有一些敌对的利益团体在活动，我们还有一段路要走。”

    比如，库图拉斯发现债权人委员会存在惊人的利益冲突，他正致力于解决这一问题。主要的事实是，美国银行（Bank of America）、摩根大通（J.P. Morgan）和委员会的其他成员在尝试建立“秃鹫基金”的时候，能够利用内幕消息自肥——这些银行利用这一基金低价购买客户已大大缩水的索赔权，等待破产程序完结后获得更高的补偿。如果客户无法迅速拿回资金，出售索赔权几乎就成了他们唯一的选择。但在库图拉斯看来，事情不应该这样发展下去。此外，库图拉斯也对破产受托人颇有意见。“受托人根本不为客户着想；把破产程序尽可能地拖下去，从而实现托管费用最大化，这才符合他的利益（这起案件的托管费用为每小时891美元）。”

    与此同时，约翰•罗伊作为一位众议员之子的身份似乎也在产生成效：前新泽西州长、明富环球CEO乔恩•柯赛将于12月8日在参议院举行的一个听证会上作证。他预期将面临的问题包括，为什么明富环球破产前，客户资金会遭到侵犯。

    库图拉斯和罗伊在一份白皮书上写道，他们最担心的是，如果明富环球破产案草草收场，“美国将丧失其作为一个可行的大宗商品交易管辖地的地位。国会应该动用一切可动用的权力，阻止这一幕发生。”

    对于还担任过高盛公司（Goldman Sachs ）联席主席的乔恩•柯赛，库图拉斯意见很大，其中有些话甚至不宜见报。“他是个华尔街债券交易商，而不是做期货这行的。这正是明富环球遭受灭顶之灾的原因。他是个外行。他是华尔街罪恶的化身，是美国罪恶的化身。”

    Koutoulas got into markets early: As a tech-savvy kid from Sunrise, Florida, he landed an internship with a telecom startup after winning a contest designing his school's Web site. He learned about trading from the company's CFO and bought his first car at 16 using capital gains he earned from betting on technology stocks. At 17, he interned for Smith Barney writing analytical software that assessed the performance of brokers and he founded Typhon after graduating from law school. "Typhon's business model is predicated on the fact that traders are, by nature, disorganized," Koutoulas says. "I have lots of skills, but I think like a programmer. I built all our back-office legal and accounting systems and package our products. The business pretty much runs itself."

    But at his core, Koutoulas is a legal cynic, which appears to be just what MF Global's customers need. Working alongside partners at the law firm Barnes & Thornburg (whose clients include those hurt by the MF Global bankruptcy) Koutoulas has successfully expedited the restoration of hundreds of millions of dollars of customer funds and drawn national attention to the plight of MF Global customers still desperately awaiting their returns. "We are directly responsible for much of the progress that's been made," he says. "But there are still adverse interests at work and we have a ways to go."

    For instance, Koutoulas is looking to address what he believes to be staggering conflicts of interest on the creditors' committee – primarily the fact that Bank of America (BAC), J.P. Morgan (JPM), and other committee members can exploit inside information while trying to set up "vulture funds" to buy customers' claims for pennies on the dollar, then get paid out once the bankruptcy is settled. If customers' funds are not returned swiftly, selling their claims might be their only feasible option, but it should not have to be that way, he says. Koutoulas also has issues with the bankruptcy trustee. "The trustee is not there for the customer; he's there to make the bankruptcy take as long as possible, so he can get the most fees possible." (In this case, $891 an hour.)

    Meanwhile, Roe's pedigree as the son of a congressman may also be paying off: former New Jersey Governor and CEO of MF Global Jon Corzine has been called to testify at a Senate hearing on Dec. 8. Among the questions he's expected to face is why customer funds were violated before the collapse of his company.

    In a white paper, Koutoulas and Roe write that their greatest fear is that the MF Global bankruptcy will be botched so badly that "it will be the end of the United States as a viable jurisdiction for commodity trading. Congress should use whatever power it has to prevent this from happening."

    Regarding Corzine, also former co-chairman of Goldman Sachs (GS), Koutoulas harbors strong views; few of them fit to print. "He's a Wall Street bond trader, not a futures guy. That's what ruined it. He's an alien invader. He personifies what is wrong with Wall Street and what is wrong with this country."