[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 50 (Tuesday, March 27, 2012)]
[Senate]
[Page S2092]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         SUBMITTED RESOLUTIONS

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    SENATE RESOLUTION 407--EXPRESSING THE SENSE OF THE SENATE THAT 
 EXECUTIVES OF THE BANKRUPT FIRM MF GLOBAL SHOULD NOT BE REWARDED WITH 
             BONUSES WHILE CUSTOMER MONEY IS STILL MISSING

  Ms. STABENOW (for herself and Mr. Roberts) submitted the following 
resolution; which was considered and agreed to:

                              S. Res. 407

       Whereas on October 31, 2011, MF Global Holdings, Ltd., 
     filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the United 
     States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York 
     after reporting that as much as $900,000,000 in customer 
     money had gone missing;
       Whereas MF Global Holdings, Ltd. is the parent company of 
     MF Global, Inc., formerly a futures commission merchant and 
     broker-dealer for thousands of commodities and securities 
     customers;
       Whereas following the bankruptcy filing, Judge Louis Freeh, 
     the court-appointed trustee for the liquidation of MF Global 
     Holdings, retained certain employees of the MF Global 
     entities at the time of the bankruptcy, including the chief 
     operating officer, the chief financial officer, the general 
     counsel, and other individuals, in order to assist the 
     liquidation process;
       Whereas on March 8, 2012, the Wall Street Journal reported 
     that Mr. Freeh may ask the bankruptcy court judge to approve 
     performance-related bonuses for the chief operating officer, 
     chief financial officer, the general counsel, and the other 
     employees;
       Whereas according to the court-appointed trustee for the 
     liquidation of MF Global, Inc. under the Securities Investor 
     Protection Act of 1970 (15 U.S.C. 78aaa et seq.), Mr. James 
     Giddens, the total amount of customer funds still missing 
     could be as much as $1,600,000,000;
       Whereas on March 15, 2012, all of the members of the 
     Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry of the 
     Senate sent a letter to Mr. Freeh urging him not to reward 
     senior executives of the bankrupt MF Global entities with 
     performance-related bonuses while customer money is still 
     missing;
       Whereas on March 16, 2012, Mr. Freeh responded to the 
     members of the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and 
     Forestry of the Senate, stating that he has not made any 
     decisions regarding the payment of bonuses to former senior 
     executives of the firm;
       Whereas the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the 
     court-appointed trustee for the liquidation of MF Global, 
     Inc. under the Securities Investor Protection Act of 1970 (15 
     U.S.C. 78aaa et seq.), and other Federal authorities are 
     investigating the events leading up to the bankruptcy in an 
     effort to return customer money and prosecute any wrongdoing; 
     and
       Whereas as of the date of agreement to this resolution, 
     none of the investigators have stated public conclusions 
     regarding the exact location of the missing money or whether 
     criminal wrongdoing was involved: Now, therefore, be it
       Resolved, That it is the sense of the Senate that bonuses 
     should not be paid to the executives and employees who were 
     responsible for the day-to-day management and operations of 
     MF Global until its customers' segregated account funds are 
     repaid in full and investigations by Federal authorities have 
     revealed both the cause of, and parties responsible for, the 
     loss of millions of dollars of customer money.

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