明富環球破產案亂象愈演愈烈

????大型機構投資者如今也嘗到了許多納稅人在金融危機期間失敗受挫的滋味：為肆意妄為的金融機構造成的損失買單。

????當然，這次處于漩渦中心的是明富環球金融集團（MF Global）。美國券商明富環球金融集團的歷史可以追溯到18世紀，是一家深受信賴的金融機構，如今卻申請破產，同時涉嫌挪用高達6億美元的客戶資金。

????明富環球金融集團在萬圣節申請破產保護兩周后，人們依然滿腹疑問。調查過程充滿矛盾，原本旨在恢復公眾信心，結果卻適得其反。周一，本案的破產受托人宣布，明富環球金融集團賬戶上去向不明的資金可能遠遠不止6億美元——實際數額也許高達12億美元。數億美元的交易資金和抵押品在沒有通知的情況下遭到凍結，極大地擾亂了金融衍生品市場。聯邦檢察官、監管機構和法務會計正在夜以繼日地工作，追查這些失蹤資金的下落。盡管如此，就在本月早些時候，明富環球金融集團的律師還曾經向紐約法官保證，“不存在資金短缺問題”。

????本案有什么與眾不同的地方？有位對沖基金經理人說的很有道理：“明富環球金融集團破產的可怕之處在于，這個國家沒有政治意愿來維護民眾的利益。我們應該記住這件事的教訓，那就是如果有人打算偷你的錢，根本就沒人會保護你。我的意思是說，這是金融界最可怕的事情?！?/p>

????公眾感到憤怒，同時認為如果他們自己不采取措施，那么沒有人會為他們著想——幾周來，投資者不斷收集信息，團結起來保護自己的權益。其中最引人矚目的團體是商品客戶聯盟（Commodity Customer Coalition），臺風資本管理公司（Typhon Capital Management）首席執行官詹姆斯?庫圖拉斯代表明富環球金融集團的幾千位前客戶領導這個聯盟。交易員們也卷了進來，其中有亞伯拉罕投資管理公司（Abraham Investment Management）的安德魯?亞伯拉罕。他撰寫了大量文章，披露投資者的權益遭到忽視，只有部分資金獲得返還。他認為這種方式并不公平，華盛頓的政府官員應該受到指責。

????各方努力目前初見成效。11月17日，美國破產法院的馬丁?格倫法官批準解凍5.2億美元現金，返還給明富環球金融集團的2.3萬名客戶，這筆資金將在一周內發放完畢。

????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.