Jon Corzine is close to reaching a tentative agreement to resolve a U.S. regulator’s allegations that he failed to properly oversee MF Global Holdings Ltd. as the brokerage unit spiraled toward failure almost five years ago, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. Corzine, who earlier served as New Jersey’s governor, a U.S. senator and the co-chairman of Goldman Sachs Group Inc., may pay $5 million out of his own pocket to settle the claims from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. The regulator is also seeking a lifetime ban from personally trading other people’s money in the futures industry. The CFTC alleges Corzine didn’t fix inadequate controls that led to $1 billion in missing customer funds, that he was aware of the New York-based firm’s extreme shortage of cash and that he didn’t ask questions about the origins of funds used to make transfers that he ordered. Corzine has previously argued that he never requested any misuse of customer funds to help his firm stay afloat as it dealt with margin calls on bad bets. He testified to Congress under subpoena and under oath that he asked that overdrafts with JPMorgan Chase & Co. be corrected.
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