Tonight, the PBS program Frontline will air Six Billion Dollar Bet, detailing how Democratic fundraiser, former senator, Obama bundler, and former New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine bankrupted MF Global during his disastrous stint as the brokerage's CEO.
Frontline reports:
At MF Global, his strategy was simple: "We are transforming from sort of an old-like brokerage firm into an investment bank," Corzine told CNBC’s Maria Bartiromo. Key to his plan was a massive bet on European government bonds – a bet that would swell to more than $6 billion, and ultimately lead to MF Global’s collapse.
Corzine’s bet could not have occurred without a finance strategy known as "internal repo." In essence, MF Global was borrowing money from customer accounts and using it to fund trading in another part of the firm. During the summer of 2011, however, just months before MF Global filed for bankruptcy, internal repo was a strategy regulators were hoping to do away with.
Six Billion Dollar Bet airs tonight on most PBS stations. Local listings can be found here. The film will be available online after 10 pm EST.
