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MF Global CEO Steps Down

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

NPR's business news starts with Jon Corzine out of a job.

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INSKEEP: The Wall Street veteran and former governor of New Jersey stepped down today from his latest high-powered job as chairman and CEO of the securities firm MF Global. That company filed for bankruptcy earlier this week.

Negotiations with a potential buyer fell through after the discovery of accounting discrepancies, and now regulators are investigating the investment firm for possible mismanagement of client funds. NPR's Yuki Noguchi reports on Corzine's resignation.

YUKI NOGUCHI, BYLINE: MF Global's statement is simple: Corzine resigned from all of his posts at the investment and commodities trading firm, and he will not seek the $12 million in severance payments specified in his employment contract. The company failed, in large part, because it bet billions on European debt that lost value. But investigators are concerned about an apparent major violation by MF Global. The company admitted to regulators that it had moved several hundred million dollars from its clients' accounts. Those accounts were supposed to be segregated from the rest of the firm's money.

Now attention is focused on Corzine, and whether he might have authorized or known about the transfer from the clients' accounts. Yuki Noguchi, NPR News, Washington. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

Yuki Noguchi is a correspondent on the Science Desk based out of NPR's headquarters in Washington, D.C. She started covering consumer health in the midst of the pandemic, reporting on everything from vaccination and racial inequities in access to health, to cancer care, obesity and mental health.