Corzine: 'I don't know where the money is'

By Aaron Smith December 8, 2011

Jon Corzine, former CEO of bankrupt MF Global, apologized for the failure of his company and said he can't find the missing money.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Jon Corzine, the former chief executive officer of the bankrupt broker MF Global, apologized for his firm's failure Thursday and told a House committee that he doesn't know where the missing money went.
"I simply do not know where the money is, or why the accounts have not been reconciled to date," said Corzine, in prepared testimony to the House Agriculture Committee on Thursday.
He also apologized "to all those affected."
"My sadness, of course, pales in comparison to the losses and hardships that customers, employees and investors suffered as a result of MF Global's bankruptcy," he said.
The lengthy testimony is the first full response from Corzine since MF Global's failure in October.
Corzine, a former U.S. senator and governor of New Jersey, was called to Capitol Hill to participate in the committee's investigation of the firm, which went bankrupt after disclosing bets on risky European debt that sparked a panic among investors.
He did not mention a specific amount of money. But since the bankruptcy filing, investigators have been trying to find $1.2 billion missing from MF Global's books, according to the trustee overseeing the brokerage firm's liquidation.

Corzine resigns from MF Global

The Federal Bureau of Investigation and other federal authorities are probing the company, which is also being investigated by the House Financial Services Committee and the Senate Agriculture Committee.
MF Global, a trader in commodities and derivatives, started to implode after it disclosed $6.3 billion in exposure to troubled sovereign debt from weak European countries.
Corzine failed to broker a last-ditch deal to sell the company to Interactive Brokers (IBKR) after accounting "deficiencies" were found. MF Global filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Oct. 31, in the eighth-largest bankruptcy in U.S. history.
Both the House and Senate agriculture committees as well as a subcommittee of House Financial Services have voted to subpoena him. The Senate Agriculture and House Financial Services hearings are scheduled for next week.

Corzine, who is also a former CEO of Goldman Sachs (GS, Fortune 500), tried to get the hearings postponed to January, but his requests were denied.