PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP yesterday said that it may seek a mistrial in a $3 billion malpractice case over the collapse of Jon Corzine's MF Global Holdings Ltd, saying it was blindsided when the plaintiff changed its theory of why the brokerage failed, Reuters reported yesterday. The auditor has been accused by MF Global's bankruptcy administrator of accounting negligence that let the former New Jersey governor invest $6.3 billion in European sovereign debt, leading to a liquidity crisis and an Oct. 31, 2011 bankruptcy. But PwC said the administrator has instead argued at a federal trial that began last Tuesday that Corzine's bet was sound, and that MF Global's collapse was caused by market "confusion" and a "crisis of confidence" that was "somehow" the result of PwC's accounting advice. PwC urged U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero in Manhattan to strike evidence and arguments supporting this theory, including from Corzine, or else declare a mistrial.
