MF Global's Missing Cash May Be Gone Forever

As officials search for the remainder of missing MF Global cash—which one insider puts at more than $1 billion—some are starting to fear the worst. In the words of one source to the Wall Street Journal: A "significant amount" of the money could have "vaporized," impossible to track through various trades and exchanges. One theory gaining traction: MF Global workers pulled cash from a "customer segregated account" meant to remain separate from the firm's assets.

Workers may have used the funds to protect the company as worries over its finances mounted. Alternatively, the company's investments of customer cash may have been hit hard by losses. A large portion of MF Global's money moved through banks and partners who now say they don't hold any of the missing cash. While some $5.3 billion of the $6 billion allegedly on hand at the time of the bankruptcy has been recovered, much of that is tied up in litigation—so the missing figure could be as much as $1.2 billion, according to one bankruptcy trustee. Click through for more on the search, or more on MF Global's collapse. (More MF Global stories.)