By Patrick Temple-West
Dec 22 (Reuters) - The trustee for the failed MF Global Inc
on Saturday announced two key agreements that are expected to
accelerate cash payouts to clients and creditors of the failed
futures brokerage.
James Giddens, trustee for the MF Global estate, said in a
statement he has negotiated deals to resolve disputes with the
company's former British affiliate and the parent company, MF
Global Holdings Ltd.
As a result of the UK agreement, Giddens estimated
between$500 million and $600 million could be returned to the MF
Global estate if the deal is finalized.
Giddens, whose job is to recover as much money as possible
for customers, has returned about 80 percent of the money in
customer trading accounts.
Giddens said claims by MF Global's securities customers
could be fully restored. Commodities customers could get
"significant additional distributions," he said.
The estate has a hearing scheduled for Jan. 31, 2013 before
the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of
New York, the first step toward getting the UK agreement
approved.
"The trustee's goal is still to return 100 percent to the
commodities customers, and we will be going before the court in
an attempt to achieve that," Kent Jarrell, a spokesman for
Giddens, said on Saturday.
MF Global improperly used customer money to plug liquidity
gaps as the brokerage was in freefall last year, creating a
roughly $1.6 billion gap in customer accounts, according to a
June report by Giddens. The company filed for bankruptcy in
October 2011.
As a result of money changing hands during MF Global's
chaotic collapse, various company affiliates have been fighting
over who owes money to whom.
Earlier this month, Giddens released a report saying more
than 28,000 claims have been filed by the brokerage's
commodities and securities customers, all but 200 have been
fully resolved.
So far, Giddens has returned approximately $4.7 billion to
commodities customers hit by the brokerage's collapse.
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