While thousands of former MF Global Holdings Ltd. customers still do not have a chunk of their money more than a year after the brokerage firm's collapse, some of its big clients largely avoided similar losses thanks to arrangements struck with the firm before its demise, the Wall Street Journal reported today. These clients include energy-trading heavyweights ConocoPhillips and Koch Industries Inc. They are now battling in court against trustee James Giddens, who says that letters of credit struck by these clients have created imbalances. Most of the ranchers, farmers and small traders who traded commodities through MF Global were required to back their trades with cash or other assets as collateral. But nine customers, including two units of Houston-based ConocoPhillips and the energy-trading arm of Koch, based in Wichita, Kan., had agreements to back millions of dollars in trades with letters of credit, meaning their losses were smaller than they would have been if they had put up cash.
